About eleven o'clock
She could hear the movement and squawk of a chicken in one of the trees in the side yard when some fellow lodger disturbed it , or a sudden breeze shook the limb upon which it roosted . She wondered if the boys had come back yet and slipped in quietly . Had she slept at all ? About eleven o'clock there arose an unquiet , gusty , yet persistent wind , that moved the cedar tree against the edge of the porch roof and set it complaining . For a time it moaned and protested like a man under the knife . Then its deep baritone voice began to cry out as though it were calling upon her . The tree had long ceased to mean anything other than Creed to Judith , and now its outcry aroused her to an absolute terror .