“You swear––” his voice rang unnaturally sharp, and he paused to moisten his throat,––“you swear before God you’ll abide by this?”
“I swear before God,” repeated Ichabod slowly.
A second, and the little man followed in echo.
“And I––I swear, I, too, will abide.”
Neither man remembered that one of this twain, who gave oath before the Deity, was an agnostic, the other an atheist!
A lonely south wind was rising, and above the tinkle of the blacksmith’s hammer there sounded the tap of the light shade as it flapped in the wind against the window-pane. Low, drowsy, moaning,––typical breath of 215 prairie,––it droned through the loosely built house, with sound louder, but not unlike the perpetual roar of a great sea-shell.
Ten minutes passed, and the men sat very still. Both their faces were white, and in the angle of the jaw of each the muscles were locked hard. Ichabod was leaning near the candle. It sputtered and a tiny globule of hot tallow struck his face. He winced and wiped the drop off quickly. Observing, Arnold smiled and opened his lips as if to make comment; then closed them suddenly, and the smile passed.
Two minutes more the watches ticked off; very, very slowly. Neither of the men had thought, beforehand, of this time of waiting. Big drops of sweat were forming on both their faces, and in the ears of each the blood sang madly. A haze, as from the dropping of a shade, seemed to have formed and hung over the room, and in unison sounds from without acquired a certain faintness, like that born of distance. Through it all the two men sat motionless, watching the candle and the time, as the fascinated bird watches its charmer; as the subject watches the hypnotist,––as if the 216 passive exercise were the one imperative thing in the world.
“Thirteen minutes.”
Unconsciously, Arnold was counting aloud. The flame was very low, now, and he started to move his chair closer, then sank back, a smile, almost ghastly, upon his lips. The blaze had reached the level of the socket, and was growing smaller and smaller. Two minutes yet to burn! He had lost.