The big clock began to tick and the boys knew it wouldn’t be long till the hour would strike, so they backed off and fled out the door, down the stairs, with Doug following and Tom leading the way.

The mob met Grandpa in the middle of the courthouse lawn and he gave each of them a pat on the head or the shoulder. Then the other boys ran to their homes, leaving Tom and Doug and Grandpa to walk a block to the corner where the United Cigar Store still stood open because it was Saturday night.

The last of the Saturday night strollers were starting to drift home and Grandpa picked out the finest cigar he could find, cut it, and lit it from the eternal flame that stood on the cigar store counter. He puffed contentedly and looked with quiet satisfaction upon his two grandsons.

‘Well done, boys,’ he said. ‘Well done.’

Then the sound that they didn’t want to hear came.

The great clock was clearing its throat in the tower and struck its first note.

Bong!

One by one the town lights began to go out.

Bong!

Grandpa turned and nodded, and gestured with his cigar for the boys to follow him home.

They crossed the street and walked up the block as the great clock struck another note, and another, which shivered the air and trembled their blood.

The boys grew pale.

Grandpa looked down and pretended not to notice.

All the town’s lights were now out and they had to find their way in the dark, with only the merest sliver of moon in the sky to lead the way.

They walked away from the clock and its terrible sound, which echoed in their blood and compelled all the people in the town toward their destinies.

They went down past the ravine where, maybe, a new Lonely One was hiding and might come up at any moment and grab hold.

Doug looked out and saw the black silhouette of the haunted house, perched on the edge of the ravine, and wondered.

Then, at last, in the total dark, as the last peal of the great clock faded away, they ambled up the sidewalk and Grandpa said, ‘Sleep well, boys. God bless.’

The boys ran home to their beds. They could feel, though they did not hear, the great clock ticking and the future rushing upon them in the black night.

In the dark Doug heard Tom say from his room across the hall, ‘Doug?’

‘What?’

‘That wasn’t so hard after all.’

‘No,’ said Doug. ‘Not so hard.’

‘We did it. At least we put things back the way they should be.’

‘I don’t know about that,’ said Doug.

‘But I know,’ said Tom, ‘because that darned clock is going to make the sun rise. I can hardly wait.’

Then Tom was asleep and Doug soon followed.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Bong!