The imps came to him in the dark, but he mastered them and reasoned it out to a great peace. “It is better so. Henry can give her an easier life. She will be happier here in her old home town. I must fight for a place in the world, and she is not a fighter. I am handicapped. In the years to come, as a deaf man I shall be worse off than a man with one leg. I really have no right to ask her to share an uncertainty with me. Henry is the better man—and yet, she is the ‘only girl.’ I cannot stay here. I’ll go back North!” The deaf spend less time on regrets after the struggle than do those who can hear. So the young man walked back to the house with a great peace in his heart. The “only girl” was sitting on the steps, one of a group of happy young people. And Henry came walking across the lawn straight to the deaf man. The latter braced himself and held out his hand to the rival—for what did it matter after all if the “only girl” could be satisfied? But Henry got in ahead. He put out his hand impulsively and said: “Old man, I congratulate you! She has told me all about it. She’s not for me. She says she admires a self-made man, and that’s more than I can ever be. Mother took the job off my hands too early!” This is undoubtedly the best antidote for my fears and imaginary vagaries, and I like to pass it in mental review. And this lady who sits at the other side of the fire! I wonder how much of it _she_ remembers? Does it have the effect of an antidote for her? She is writing something for me now. No doubt she is remembering that night long ago—the music and the moonlight and all the rest of it. Here is proof of the power of mental communication. The good lady passes the message over to me. Let me rub my glasses a moment in pleasant anticipation. I read: “You went away this morning without leaving me any money. I must have ten dollars to pay a few little bills!” Remembering happier days appears to be a special privilege of the deaf! CHAPTER XVII “THE TERROR THAT FLIETH BY NIGHT” The Terror that Flieth by Night—’Gene Wilson in the Dark Silence—How He Fought off Insanity—Childhood Fears—The Cat in the Garret—The Blind and the Deaf at the Dark Railroad Station—A Georgia Experience.