<h2> <em>HERE</em><em> </em><em>IS</em><em> </em><em>T</em><em>H</em><em>E</em><em> </em><em>ESSAY</em><em> </em><em>FOR</em><em> </em><em>YOU</em></h2>
Mr. Framton Nuttel had a nerve disorder. He decided to go and stay in a calm rural retreat for cure. His sister, gave him letters of introduction to known people in a calm retreat. Framton went to the house of Mrs. Sappleton to present the letter of introduction.
Mrs. Sappleton's niece Vera received Nuttel and asked him to wait for her aunt.
The niece began to tell Mr. Nuttel about a tragedy that took place exactly three years ago. A large French window that opened to a lawn was kept open. Three years back her aunt's husband and her two young brothers went out for hunting. They used to go out through the window and re-enter the same way. But they did not return on that fateful day. They were killed by being engulfed in a bog along with their dog Bertie. She told him their bodies were never recovered.
She continued that her aunt kept that window open till dusk everyday and waited for them to return through that window as they always did. She told Mr. Nuttel how her aunt used to repeat the tale. Soon her aunt came. She told him that she was expecting the hunting team to walk-in through that window anytime.
When Mr. Framton Nuttel told her about his illness, she was only partially listening to him. Suddenly she announced the return of the hunting party. Framton shivered and turned towards Vera for sympathy. But she too was staring out through the open window with horror in her eyes. With a shock, Framton swung around and saw three figures walking across the lawn towards the window carrying guns. A dog was walking beside them.
Framton grabbed his stick and hat and raced past the hall-door and the front gate. Vera gave her explanation as to why he ran out. She said that he must have been afraid of the Dog. It was due to his horrible experience of being hunted into a cemetery by a pack of mongrel. Vera thus played a prank on Mr. Nuttel with cleverly concocted stories. Romance at short notice was Vera's specialty.
