"It's the same principle, really," he said, flashing his pointed teeth
in a wide smile at her.
"Yes--" she said, with a funny cold feeling inside her. "Yes, I suppose
it is."
Suddenly, without another word, she turned about and hurried upstairs.
She couldn't get the padlock on the door fast enough to suit her.
* * * * *
"Whew!" she gasped, sinking into a kitchen chair. "I've never been so
jittery in my life."
At the rear window of the kitchen, just over the cellar door, she heard
something, a kind of beating, flapping sound, but when she turned to
look through the window, there was nothing there.
"Brrr," she shuddered. "Someone must be walking over my grave."
She began to make a pot of tea to warm herself up. She was having her
second cup when the bright idea struck her.
"He'll be so grateful," she said, hurrying into the front hall to
search through the junk in the closet there. She hadn't liked the look
in his eyes when she'd last seen him. Perhaps he'd be so angry with her
that he'd leave, and then she'd have to refund what remained of the
five hundred dollars. This really gave her something to worry about.
"But," she half-sang to herself, taking out the box from the closet,
"this will make him change his mind. _Anyone_ would be grateful not to
have to sleep in a dirty old box like that another night...."
* * * * *
"Hello!" she chirped, as Vandor opened the door to his room. "I got up
early to surprise you."
"Mrs. Tibbets ..." he said, closing the door behind him with an odd,
intent stare, "for once, I am very glad to see you."
He approached her slowly, towering over her in his enormous black
cloak, his pallid hands reaching out toward her.
"You--You are?" she said, in a very small voice.
"Yes," he said, eyes and teeth glinting. "I had a rather ...
_unfruitful_ ... night's work. But now I feel that everything will soon
be all right."
His gaze shifted from her eyes to her throat, and she suddenly felt
chilly.
"Mister Thobal," she said quickly, "I have good news for you."
"You have?" he said, surprised into halting a few paces from her. "For
me? You have news for me?"
"Yes," she said, with what she hoped was infectious delight. "You won't
have to sleep in that dirty box anymore.... Look!"
She turned to her left and, reaching out a hand, flicked a switch.
Instantly, reflecting from the inner walls and soil of the box, a
bright, warm light came alive.
"It'll keep your mushrooms _much_ warmer than _you_ ever could!" she
said, turning back to him. "It's a _sunlamp_!"
But, as she completed her turn, Vandor Thobal was not in evidence. His
suit, cloak, and shoes were still there, however, sagging horribly into
a viscous brown-and-green puddle on the floor of the room.
"Goodness!" said Mrs. Tibbets, leaping to her feet. "Now I _am_
worried!"