Joe shook his head to clear it, and the lights seemed to come back on. He climbed to his feet, stood wavering as he stared about. Pearl was clinging to him, staring down at the floor. He looked down. The Devil was lying flat on his stomach, and across him lay the snow shovel with which Pearl had hit him. There was a goose-egg on the back of the Devil's bald head, and it was getting bigger by the second.
"You really walloped him hard!" exclaimed Joe.
"We've got to get out of here!" said Pearl. "Get the kids and go! He'll come to pretty soon and then..." she began to shudder uncontrollably. "He's the Devil!" she sobbed.
"I guess he is," admitted Joe. "But it won't do any good to run from him. Has never helped in the past."
His eyes roved about the basement, fell upon the chain fastened to the wall, with its steel collar.
"That's it!" he exclaimed. "We'll chain him to the wall with Rover's chain. That'll give us time to decide what to do."
He grabbed the Devil by the heels, dragged him over to the wall. Opening the collar, he placed it around the Devil's thick neck, and snapped it shut. It clicked with a satisfying air of finality. Joe jerked it several times to see that it was tight.
"He's coming to!" exclaimed Pearl.
"And I think the kids have heard the commotion and are coming to investigate," said Joe. "You get upstairs—head them off. We can't let them see this..."
Pearl ran for the stairs, and called up to them. "No, Jimmy—Sally, don't come down! Mother's coming up. Everything's all right."