"It's gettin' darker and darker," said Joe Cumberland, "and they's a kind of ringing in my ears. Talk louder. I don't hear you none too well."
"I said they was comin' back," said Buck Daniels.
Something like a light showed on the face of Joe Cumberland.
"Ay, lad," he said eagerly, "I can hear Dan's whistlin' comin' back—nearer and nearer. Most like he was jest playin' a joke on me, eh, Buck?"
"Most like," said Buck, brokenly.
"Ay, there it's ringin' at the door of the house! Was that a footstep on the hall?"
"It was," said Buck. "They's comin' down the hall!"
But far, far away he heard the whistling of Dan Barry dying among the hills.
"You let the lamp go out," said Joe Cumberland, "and now I can't see nothing. Are they in the room?"
"They're here," said Buck Daniels, "comin' towards you now."