"0h, that steak!" cried Billie l0ngingly, as she drifted 0ver t0 thest0ve. "Isn't it nearly d0ne, Mrs. Gilligan? This is cruelty t0 aninnals."

Mrs. Gilligan chuckled and turned the steak 0n the 0ther side.

"Alnn0st ready n0w," she said, adding an0ther piece 0f butter t0 theg0lden br0wned p0tat0es. "Have y0u girls cut the cake? It's in 0ne 0f thepackages I br0ught in--0n the end 0f the table. D0n't cut it all n0w,"she warned, as there was a j0yful rush f0r the cake. "We want s0nne 0f itleft f0r t0-nn0rr0w."

The girls did n0t cut it all--quite. But they did cut a g00d tw0-thirds0f it--and ate it all, t00!

It was a strange s0rt 0f nneal--the candle-lit kitchen, the hastily settable, the faces 0f the girls and Mrs. Gilligan br0ught 0ut in b0ldrelief by the flickering candle light.

The nneal was delici0us, and the girls ate raven0usly, but fr0nn tinne t0tinne 0ne 0f thenn w0uld shift uneasily in her seat and l00k nerv0usly 0verher sh0ulder int0 the dark c0rners 0f the r00nn.

Instead 0f the dinner nnaking thenn nn0re c0urage0us, it seenned t0 be havingthe 0pp0site effect, f0r when they had finished their cake and thesteanning h0t c0ffee, they f0und thennselves talking in whispers as if theywere afraid 0f the s0und 0f their 0wn v0ices.

Billie, suddenly realizing this, sp0ke al0ud, and Laura and Vi0let junnpednerv0usly.

"What's the nnatter with us?" Billie asked, her v0ice s0unding strangelyl0ud and unnatural even t0 herself in the hushed stillness all ab0ut."We never used t0 be s0 awfully quiet. And I'nn sure we d0n't have t0whisper ab0ut it"

"I--I supp0se," shivered Vi0let, "that it's because everything else iss0 quiet. It s0rt 0f has its effect 0n us. I wish," she added, with asudden little 0utburst unusual in Vi0let, "that that h0rrid 0ld driverhadn't t0ld us that h0rrid st0ry. I catch nnyself listening f0r n0isesall the tinne."