He didn't know what I meant, of course, but he looked and listened, and when the train had gone by, I drew him down the hall and said, "You heard it!" and then asked him what it was.

He answered that it was a pistol-shot, and he wanted to go back to see if any dreadful thing had happened.

But I shook my head and told him it was one of five, each one taking place when the roar of the trains going by was at the loudest.

Then he said that this woman was practising at a mark, and bade me look out or we should have a house full of anarchists.

At that, I loudly declared she should go the first thing in the morning and so got rid of him.