the moon
...eful,he watched the square of moonlight with one open eye,listening to the silence. When the clock struck ,it mde him shake his body as the first storke crashed against the silence.It struck twice,and the sound died slowlly,leaving at last a silence which had deepened.It was a peculiar,unpleasant hour to be awake.When a few minutes had passed,the stove made a little throaty noise and went out ,leaving the square of moonshine the only light in te room .Bill had had little experience of such darkness,still less of so deep a silence.The smallest of his movements seemed to interrupt it ,and he had the sensation of hiding,the imaginary but powerful fear that any sound,a cough or a slight movement or even the sound of his breathing,would give him away .He moved cautiously into a better position and held himself absolutely still.Then he thought he heard a noise quite close to him ,a faint ,gentletapping;quite regular,ceasing for a few seconds and then continuing unbroken for a full minute . He tried to believe that it was his imaginat...