Derek looked worried, everybody was frowning. "An' every year after that, on the same midnight that tapping was heard, and all the De Cocos shook in fear and prayed to their gods and made sacrifices; they sacrificed crops, they sacrificed white birds, they sacrificed lambs. One year they even sacrificed a great buffalo whose burned bones spelled 'murder,' but the tapping wouldn't stop and slowly, year by year, the De Cocos started leaving, wandering all over the world until there was nobody left to hear that midnight concert but the wind." Stony continued to tap, the sound filling the room. "Then, many years later, white men came to build a town and they saw that cave, and it was in the way, so they blew it up with dynamite and started building houses and banks and train stations and a big town was in full swing, but every year on this one particular midnight they heard strange tappings from the spot where the old cave useta be—it echoed through the town like the ticking of a giant clock and nobody knew what it was or where it was coming from. This old, crazy lady said she saw a blindfolded Indian wandering the dark streets one night with an ax in his hand, but when she went to touch him to take off the blindfold, he vanished right in front of her face. Nobody would believe her because she was out of her tree, but she knew she really saw him and every year when that tapping sound was heard she would go out into the street, see him stumbling around and she would try to help him, but he always vanished before she touched him. Then one year on that special midnight, she heard the tapping, got dressed and went out looking for him. Before she could find him, two robbers tried to hold her up. When she wouldn't give them her money, they stabbed her. When the mornin' came, they found the old lady dead in the street, clutchin' an old piece of cloth, what looked like it coulda been used as a blindfold. And about a hundred yards up the road they found two more bodies—the robbers." Stony started tapping again. "Their heads was split open with an ax."

"It was the Indian?"

"Right after that, the tapping stopped, for years nobody heard nothin' ever again. Except last year when I was walkin' around the hospital outside I heard somethin' like tappin'."

"Was it him?"

"I didn't hang around to find out, I'll tell you that much ... but I wouldn't worry about it; it was probably a woodpecker or somethin'."

"Ah bet it was him!"

"He only go after bad guys, right?"

"Hey listen, you know somethin' I just realized? Tonight's the night! This is the day a the year he got killed in the cave-in!"

"Is he comin' here?"

"Ah'll kung-fu that motha!"

"Look, I got a confession to make. That Indian was my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, so if he comes around I know I'm safe because I'm his blood, but what can I do to protect you guys?" Stony screwed up his face in concentration. "I know! I'll make you all spit brothers!"