“All right. Mr. Keeler isn’t represented, so I guess I can stand it.”
Roy took the cards from the drawer of the bookcase and they began to play. But Jess’s thoughts wandered and Roy was obliged to remind her to take her turn many times.
Suddenly she held up a finger hushing him to silence.
“Don’t you hear something?” she asked in a tremulous whisper.
“Nothing but the crickets outside and the splash of the water over the dam,” he replied.
“No, it’s something in the house up stairs. Hear it now; like the creaking of a board.”
Roy did hear it this time plainly.
“It’s Rex or Eva,” he said reassuringly.
“No, it isn’t. See, it’s nearly midnight. They were asleep long ago. Oh, Roy, that man may stop on the way down and murder them both.”
Jess had risen and stood there, staring toward the doorway into the hall, her eyes filled with terror.