The matches fell from his hand and spilled in the
passage. He stood motionless, his breath suspended
until the knock was repeated. Then he turned
and fled swiftly back to his room, and closed the door
behind him. A third knock sounded through the
house.
“What’s that?” cried the old woman,
starting up.
“A rat,” said the old man in shaking tones—“a
rat. It passed me on the stairs.”
His wife sat up in bed listening. A loud knock
resounded through the house.
“It’s Herbert!” she screamed.
“It’s Herbert!”
She ran to the door, but her husband was before her,
and catching her by the arm, held her tightly.
“What are you going to do?” he whispered
hoarsely.
“It’s my boy; it’s Herbert!”
she cried, struggling mechanically. “I
forgot it was two miles away. What are you holding
me for? Let go. I must open the door.
“For God’s sake don’t let it in,”
cried the old man, trembling.
“You’re afraid of your own son,”
she cried, struggling. “Let me go.
I’m coming, Herbert; I’m coming.”
There was another knock, and another. The old
woman with a sudden wrench broke free and ran from
the room. Her husband followed to the landing,
and called after her appealingly as she hurried downstairs.
He heard the chain rattle back and the bottom bolt
drawn slowly and stiffly from the socket. Then
the old woman’s voice, strained and panting.
“The bolt,” she cried, loudly. “Come
down. I can’t reach it.”
But her husband was on his hands and knees groping
wildly on the floor in search of the paw. If
he could only find it before the thing outside got
in. A perfect fusillade of knocks reverberated
through the house, and he heard the scraping of a
chair as his wife put it down in the passage against
the door. He heard the creaking of the bolt as
it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found
the monkey’s paw, and frantically breathed his
third and last wish.
The knocking ceased suddenly, although the echoes
of it were still in the house. He heard the
chair drawn back, and the door opened. A cold
wind rushed up the staircase, and a long loud wail
of disappointment and misery from his wife gave him
courage to run down to her side, and then to the gate
beyond. The street lamp flickering opposite shone
on a quiet and deserted road.
