She was awakened from her fit of musing by an unwonted sound--a
hollow tapping, tapping, tapping, which seemed to come from a
corner of the attic where the shadows gathered most dun and dark.
The girl drew in her head from the window with a startled
expression on her face, and was then more than ever aware of the
strange sound which caused a slight thrill to run through her
frame.

What could it be? There was no other room in their house from which
the sound could proceed. She was not devoid of the superstitious
feelings of the age, and had heard before of ghostly tappings that
were said to be a harbinger of coming death or misfortune.

Tap! tap! tap! The sound continued with a ceaseless regularity, and
then came other strange sounds of wrenching and tearing. These were
perhaps not quite so ghostly, but equally alarming. What could it
be? Who and what could be behind that wall? Gertrude had heard
stories of ghastly robberies, committed during these past days in
plague-stricken houses, which were entered by worthless vagabonds,
when all within were dead or helpless, and from which vantage
ground they had gained access into other houses, and had sometimes
brought the dread infection with them.

Gertrude was by nature courageous, and she had always made it a
point of duty not to add to her mother's alarms by permitting
herself to fall a victim to nervous terrors. Frightened though she
undoubtedly was, therefore, she did not follow the impulse of her
fear and run below to summon her father, who was, she suspected,
bent on some serious work of his own; but she stood very still and