So unexpected was anything of the kind, and so intense was the emotion excited within me by the sound, that I endeavoured in vain to reply.

My powers of speech totally failed, and in an agony of terror lest my friend should conclude me dead, and return without attempting to reach me, I stood up between the crates near the door of the box, trembling convulsively, and gasping and struggling for utterance.

Had a thousand words depended upon a syllable, I could not have spoken it.

There was a slight movement now audible among the lumber somewhere forward of my station.

The sound presently grew less distinct, then again less so, and still less.