idiots?"

"Oh, I hope not! Do come upstairs, Agatha."

"No, I won't. Go you, if you like." But Gertrude was afraid to go
alone. "I think I had better waken Miss Wilson, and tell her," continued
Agatha. "It seems awful to shut anybody out on such a night as this."

"But we don't know who it is."

"Well, I suppose you are not afraid of them, in any case," said Agatha,
knowing the contrary, but recognizing the convenience of shaming
Gertrude into silence.

They listened again. The storm was now very boisterous, and they could
not hear the bell. Suddenly there was a loud knocking at the house door.
Gertrude screamed, and her cry was echoed from the rooms above, where
several girls had heard the knocking also, and had been driven by it
into the state of mind which accompanies the climax of a nightmare. Then
a candle flickered on the stairs, and Miss Wilson's voice, reassuringly
firm, was heard.

"Who is that?"

"It is I, Miss Wilson, and Gertrude. We have been watching the storm,
and there is some one knocking at the--" A tremendous battery with
the knocker, followed by a sound, confused by the gale, as of a man
shouting, interrupted her.

"They had better not open the door," said Miss Wilson, in some alarm.