I slept heavily, deeply, without dreams....
I was awakened by a cold fierce apprehension of terror.

I sat up, stared slowly around me with the sure, certain conviction that some dreadful thing had occurred.

The orchard was as it had been--the sun, lower now, shone through the green branches.

All was still and even, as I listened I heard the sharp crack of the ball upon the bat breaking the evening air.

My heart had simply ceased to beat.