"Speak," said the young man. "Gosh," Charley said in a low voice, "it was just a little joke. We never had nothing else in mind--" "I know," the young man said. "I have discounted that element. I am speaking of the unkindness of the prank--the discomfiture which you impose on its victims." "Oh," said Charley. "I--gosh, it just embarrassed them a little bit, that's all. I mean ... that's all, isn't it?" "No," said the young man sternly, "there is more. Think a moment, humans, upon that common structure in the yard ... think deeply, and you will realize that there is much more to it than meets the eye." "Guess so," mumbled Charley. "It is a haven ... a place of wondrous solitude ... a refuge for those who would contemplate without interruption, as many a weary traveler yearns for." "Guess so." "In what other situation can you be so completely alone ... in a perfect isolation not only permitted but sanctioned by your society? Why, humans, I could tell you of the most extraordinary moments of piety, of philosophical reflection, of artistic conception which we have recorded as occurring under such circumstances...." "I never thought of it that way, I guess," Charley said slowly. "I always did sort of think it leveled you off, though." The young man eyed them soberly. "In late afternoon," he said, "in the confines of the rustic outhouse, settled happily, hearing the quaint and natural sounds of the insects in the field, the flutterings of birds from branch to branch ... do you know that in this day it is the only waking place where one may flee for the inner life?" The old men looked down guiltily. "It is ever a reminder of one's mortality," the young man said. "It is Man in his true aristocratic state," he said. "And yet at his most humble," he said. "And now I will leave," he said. "I hope you have seen the light, and will no longer impose your crude, cruel joke on those who trust you for a moment's peace." He stood up. "I hardly think that it was the work of the Devil, however, as the lady seemed to think--" A cloud seemed to come over the sun--but there were no clouds, so perhaps the sun dimmed. The birds in the trees were suddenly silent. Even the rustling leaves seemed to pause. It grew still darker, and a chill breeze sprang up. A head, whose face was dark and sharp and saturnine, appeared in the center of the yard. * * * * * As the young man and the three old men watched, a tall, dark, gaunt man in a neatly tailored black suit rose from the ground and stood eying them mockingly. "Wasn't it?" he said in a thin, dry voice, and laughed. The young man's lips tightened. He said nothing. The three old men were shrunken back in their chairs, staring. The Devil--or perhaps the man in black was only _part_ of the Devil, for mysterious and complex are the ways he influences from his bronze throne in the exact center of midwestern Gehenna--turned and sauntered to the outhouse. He entered.