"Hardly. Just time to get here myself." "Well, I'd like to know, then, how...." "_You're going to skate back to town, that's how--on my skates!_" He rushed into the little room, and returning, held out his skates to Kerwin. Kerwin didn't seize them. He seized the youth's hand. "Norsey," he muttered, with the faintest suggestion of a tremor in his voice, "you're the best old pal a chap ever had...." "Oh, never mind the bouquets," Norse broke in. "Lemme see; you got all your clothes on? Those shoes are pretty bad for a swell function; but they'll be under the table. Yes, I guess you're all right. Take these skates and clamp 'em while I pack your other clothes in the satchel. Lucky you told me where you'd hid 'em.... Say, you've got to carry this bag back, Kerry.... I lugged it out." "Of course, I'll carry it back; but Norsey"--Kerwin lowered his voice and glanced about him--"you don't suppose they're hanging around here somewhere, do you?" Norse looked up from the packing. "Hanging around here!" he exclaimed. "Around _here_! Great Heavens, man! They're a million miles from here and runnin' yet if they're still alive and not scared to death. You ready?" Kerwin slung the satchel over his shoulder. "Am I all right?" he asked. Norse stepped back and regarded him curiously, a little smile playing around his mouth. Kerwin's face was very grimy. It looked almost black in the shadow above the white shirt-bosom, and there were three or four unmistakable smudges on that. Moreover it was a cold night for a man to skate three or four miles in evening clothes. "My! You look funny!" Norse laughed. "But what's the difference?" he added. "Come on...." Taking him by the arm he steadied him down the creaking stairs. "Now you can go it like the wind, right up to the door of Nickles," he said at the gate. "Are you ready?" Kerwin dug the toe of his right skate into the crust and crouched like an animal about to spring. "Go!" For a moment his body was poised like a blot above the brow of the hill, then it disappeared. Norse heard his name shouted. He ran forward and peered down. "What's up?" he called. "Nothing. I just wanted to say I'll suggest the toast 'The Kidnapping' and then you'll tell the whole tale. It'll make 'em look like a postage stamp...." Norse laughed. "Why, I'm not going to your darn banquet," he said. "Not going! The idea! You are, too, going." "No, I'm not," Norse contended, "I've got something else to do...." "What?" "I've got to go over to Ypsilanti and tell Miss Green I can't take that picture of her room till next week. I'm as near there now as I am home...." Before Kerwin could call to him again he turned on his heel and walked away. Fifty yards along he glanced back over his shoulder. What he saw caused a sort of Mephistophelian grin to curve his lips. Smoke, like a billowy veil in the moonlight, was rolling from the unboarded windows of the haunted house, and through the cracks he glimpsed the dance of flames.