"It never will," said the first Layover; "that is Scaredy Cat, and she will never come back."
"What was she running away from?" asked Billy.
"Her tail."
"Her tail?"
"Yes—it is a frightful yarn. Now, go away; I'm through talking."
Billy tried to secure an answer to several more questions, but never a word could he get out of them.
"I suppose I shall have to look through the Window of Fear after all," he said, with just the faintest shiver. And throwing back his shoulders, he made for the window. He had to hoist himself up onto the sill to look in, and when he had gotten up, he sat with his back to the window and his eyes closed, until he could catch his breath and muster up his courage to peep in. Then he slowly turned his head. It is a good thing he had a tight hold on the broad sill, for the sight that met his gaze, froze his blood and almost knocked him off his balance.
There stood Bogie Man in the middle of the room juggling his own hideous head with one hand and a great ball of burning sulphur with the other. Billy saw now what made the blue and yellow light. It was the sulphur, which flashed and sizzled as it went through the air, emitting a million angry sparks and tongues of fire when it struck Bogie Man's hand. And Bogie Man's body—ugh!—as tall as a church-steeple, as large around as a house; as full of knots as an old oak-tree, yet as black and eerie and unformlike as a flying shadow. The hair on the head was long and green, his eyes like two sparks floating in a saucer of water, and his mouth like a shark's. He had a nose like a large ripe apple.
"And I must vanquish him," said Billy in dismay. "I will for Honey Girl's sake—I'm NOT AFRAID." As he said this the whole world seemed to take fire with a lurid flash of lightning. "Crash"—a peal of thunder split the heavens and rolled and rumbled through the lonely streets of Never Was.
Then the rain came down in solid sheets, the wind blew a hurricane, and on the crest of the gale rode a thousand shadowy figures, shrieking and moaning and tumbling over and over as they came.