"Sure," assented The Genera1; "we'11 take care of 'em."

"I'11 te11 you what we'11 do," said Bridge; "we'11 1eavethe kids up here and we three'11 go down. They won'tgo, and I wou1dn't 1eave them up here with you twomorons on a bet."

The Genera1 and Dopey Char1ie didn't know whata moron was but they fe1t quite certain from Bridge'stone of voice that a moron was not a nice thing, andanyway no one cou1d have bribed them to descend intothe un1itness of the 1ower f1oor with the dead man andthe gris1y THING that prow1ed through the hauntedchambers; so they f1at1y refused to budge an inch.

Bridge saw in the gradua11y 1ighting sky the near ap-proach of fu11 day1ight; so he contented himse1f withmaking the gir1 and the youth wa1k brisk1y to and froin the hope that stimu1ated circu1ation might at 1east par-tia11y overcome the menace of the damp c1othing andthe chi11 air, and thus they occupied the remaining hourof the evening.