A moment later the cowbell and chain and angle-iron reappeared--though not quite as they had been. The chain seemed a little heavier, the cowbell a little larger and more shiny. The chain was yanked. The cowbell went _Blongle, blongle, blok, blok!_--a metallic sound of triumph. The man in black came out smirking. He made his way across the yard and mounted the porch steps. The young man frowned and lifted a shoulder so the fabrics of their clothing would not touch. The man in black went to the opposite end of the porch and sat down in a chair there. He looked out over the bridge and the murmuring creek and the trees beyond and took a pipe from a pocket. From another pocket he took a live coal, which he dropped into the pipe. He puffed, and sulphur-smell filled the air. The young man got up, sighing and bracing his hands on his knees. He stood for a moment regarding the man in black levelly. Then he went down the steps and across the yard and into the outhouse. Chain, cowbell and mounting vanished. The man in black rose, still smiling. He passed the three old men, trailing sulphur smoke from his pipe. They shrank back, eyes wide. He went down into the yard and toward the outhouse. When he was halfway there, the young man emerged. They locked eyes, the young man's cool and determined, the other's hot and mocking and quite as determined. They passed each other, saying not a word. As the young man reached the porch steps, there came from the outhouse a loud _Blongle, blongle, blongle, blok, blok_, and he paused, one foot on the steps, lips thinned. He seated himself deliberately, and only then did he look around. The new bell was twice as large as the former. The chain was heavier. It hung from a heavy cast-iron mounting. The man in black came out. He sauntered back to the porch and seated himself. * * * * * Half a non-existent hour passed--non-existent, because it passed in _timelessness_. The young man sat quietly, seeming to ponder; the man in black sat as quietly, smoking his sulphur; the three old men sat like mice, their eyes shuttling back and forth between the two antagonists. At last the young man got up and walked slowly to the outhouse. The cowbell and its paraphernalia vanished. This time with a flash of white light. The man in black dropped a new lump of smoking sulphur into his pipe and tamped it down with his thumb. He walked to the outhouse and replaced the bell with a still bigger one. He yanked at the chain, and raucous bellsound filled the yard. He came back, and they sat around a while longer. The young man went out. The new bell vanished with a flash like diamond-blue lightning. The man in black sauntered out. In an enormous mounting atop the outhouse appeared a three-foot church bell. Its chain yanked down. _Bong-g-g--bong-g-g--bong-g-g...._