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like razors.)
    “Screech kept listening for a moment, his dark, thin, weather-beaten face rigid with fear. Then he shook his head. ‘Don’t you fellows hear it?’ he said. ‘The wind. The wind is speaking to us. The wind was listening to your stories. But now the wind thinks it can do better. The wind wants to tell us a story, too.’
    “The rest of us listened carefully and then looked at each other, baffled. While we could hear the wind stirring the tops of the trees and see it fanning the flames of our campfire, it didn’t seem to us that the wind was saying anything quite so specific as that.
    “ ‘Oh, come on, Screech,’ said Tremor. ‘If you want to tell us a story, then just go ahead and do it. But don’t treat us like children. The wind wants to tell us a story. Really.’ And he laughed. ‘You must take us for the most absolute fools. It’s clear to me that this is just a stunt to help you win the bet.’
    “Screech kept on listening and then shook his head slowly, as if he’d just been told something important. ‘You ask me, it would be extremely rude of us to refuse an offer like that,’ he said gravely. ‘It’s not everyone the great north wind honors with a story. You wouldn’t want to offend the wind, would you?’
    “ ‘Stop fooling around, Screech,’ said Lurker. ‘Can’t you see we’re spooked enough as it is without you trying to spook us some more?’ He shivered and moved closer to the fire. ‘I for one have had enough creepy stories for tonight.’
    “Screech spat into the fire and looked at me. ‘How about you, Rapscallion?’ he asked me. ‘
Two
against the wind’s story, and
two
in favor. It’s your decision, sonny. The casting vote, so to speak. Only you’d better choose wisely.’
    “ ‘Wait a minute,’ said Bill Tremor. ‘Who are the
two
in favor? I only count
four
of us around this campfire.’
    “ ‘The wind is with us,’ said Screech. ‘Whether you like it or not.’
    “And strange to say, at that very moment the wind seemed to gust and blow some smoke from the fire into our faces, as if to confirm what Screech had said. Screech kept on looking at me. ‘Well? What do you say? Do we hear the wind’s story or not?’
    “ ‘This is ridiculous,’ insisted Tremor. ‘He’s just trying to frighten us. Can’t you see it? In a minute he’s going to laugh in your face that you were so easily fooled, sonny.’
    “Smiling, I nodded at Tremor. He just had to be right: Screech was playing a practical joke on the rest of us. ‘Come on, Screech,’ I said. ‘This is a hoax, right? The wind doesn’t tell stories around a campfire.’
    “ ‘Is that your final word?’ Screech’s voice sounded ominous and full of foreboding.
    “ ‘Yes,’ I said, and then bit my lip. It was just a feeling but almost immediately I regretted my decision.
    “Screech was silent for a moment and, shaking his head, sat down. He looked very sad. ‘The wind has spoken,’ he said. ‘The wind says we will have something more terrible than the story the wind was going to tell us. We will have the real thing.’
    “ ‘What do you mean?’ asked Lurker.
    “ ‘Now we will have a visit from the spirit of the wilderness itself,’ said Screech.
    “He would say no more after this,” Mr. Rapscallion told Billy. “And with all our former humor gone, we soon retired to our tents. Lurker to share with Screech. And me to share with Tremor. Despite our stories, I slept heavily. But it was a strange, dream-filled sleep that did not leave me feeling refreshed, and sometime before dawn, I awoke with the strong sensation that something was not right. My heart was beating wildly, and although it was cold, I was covered with sweat. In the pitch dark I heard Tremor stir beside me and sit up in his sleeping bag. And, certain that I had missed something in my sleep that might have explained the strange feeling of foreboding I had, I put my hand out and caught Tremor’s hairy