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Rh "I knocked, meaning to ask a fool question as an excuse just to see who was talking, and the same voice called 'come in'; so I opened the door. There, right facin' me was a big parrot's cage with the blame bird in it hangin' upside down first from one foot and then from the other, and twistin' its neck around so as to stare at me. It was a man's room all right, with a bunch of neckties hangin' on a rack by the dresser and a collar-box and military brushes in plain sight. I didn't notice any fireplace or grate. The head of the bed was hidden by the open door, but the foot of it looked smooth; and I never thought anyone was there.

"I started to walk over to the parrot's cage when a high whining voice behind me made me turn in a hurry; and there all curled up in a knot on the bed, as high up on the pillows as he could get, was a hunchback, grinnin' at me with a mean twisted kind of a smile.

"I don't mind tellin' you, Sergeant, that it gave me a turn; for though Jane had said somethin' about young Mr. Chalmers bein' crippled I didn't expect anythin' like that. He's got a face—but wait till you see him. I backed up to the door, apologizin' as well as I could; but he pulled himself up in bed and asked if I was Sergeant Odell. I said 'no,' that I was just one of your men. I could see then that he was only a kid, about seventeen or eighteen, but he looks as old as the world.

"He asked in a kind of a mockin' way if we'd made up our minds yet who the practical joker was that had dropped the picture on his brother and thrown his stepfather downstairs; and when I said 'no' again, he laughed in a shrill cackle like an old woman, and the parrot imitated him. I got out of that room as soon as I could, and I met Jane at