“Is there no other place to stay?” I asked, a sudden fear seizing me.
“None. Besides, it is growing dark without, and you would lose your way even if you could leave.”
There was something ominous in the way he uttered these last five words.
“Yes,” he went on, as if I had asked the unuttered question in my mind, “you may think you can go, but you cannot. That is the curse my father placed on this cabin. And I come each year to see that his word is obeyed. Whoever enters that door yonder on this date must stay until morning, and endure the agonies that only the rising sun can dispel.”
I looked about me to make sure that he and I were the only living things in the room.
“What is to prevent my leaving?” I asked.
“Try to,” he replied, an eerie note of glee in his queer voice.
I walked to the door and gave it a mighty pull. To my utter amazement, it was locked!
I tried again, this time with greater determination; but the door remained unyielding. A sudden terror seized me. I turned to beseech the old man to let me go, but he was not there!
I looked quickly about me. He was nowhere to be seen. I ran into the other room. It was as empty as before. I rushed to the door there and pulled vigorously, but my efforts were in vain.