The wind whistled about their ears.
"Just to visit yer, that's all.

'Cause I've taken a fancy to yer." The Captain chuckled and had vanished...
Jeremy flung one glance at the grey desolate road behind him, then ran for his life to join the others.
What, after that, did he expect?
He did not know.

Only the Captain was drawing closer, and closer, and closer.
He could feel now always his hot breath upon his ear.

Two days after the whispered dialogue in the road, that first promise of spring broke down into a tempest of wind and rain.

The Coles' house in Orange Street, although it looked, with its stout, white stone, strong enough, was old and shaky.