"I done it!" they made out his shrieked words. "I done it! I own up--I killed him! He aimed fur to break up my home and I tolled him off into Niggerwool and killed him! There's a hole in his back if you'll look fur it. I done it--oh, I done it--and I'll tell everything jest like it happened if you'll jest keep that thing away from me! Oh, my Lawdy! Don't you hear it? It's a-comin' clos'ter and clos'ter--it's a-comin' after me! Keep it away----" His voice gave out and he buried his head in his hands and rolled upon the gaudy carpet. And now they all heard what he had heard first--they heard the tonk-tonk-tonk of a cowbell, coming near and nearer toward them along the hallway without. It was as though the sound floated along. There was no creak of footsteps upon the loose, bare boards--and the bell jangled faster than it would dangling from a cow's neck. The sound came right to the door and Squire Gathers wallowed among the chair legs. The door swung open. In the doorway stood a negro child, barefooted and naked except for a single garment, eyeing them with serious, rolling eyes--and, with all the strength of his two puny arms, proudly but solemnly tolling a small rusty cowbell he had found in the cowyard. III AN OCCURRENCE UP A SIDE STREET "See if he's still there, will you?" said the man listlessly, as if knowing in advance what the answer would be. The woman, who, like the man, was in her stocking feet, crossed the room, closing the door with all softness behind her. She felt her way silently through the darkness of a small hallway, putting first her ear and then her eye to a tiny cranny in some thick curtains at a front window.