roy a nearby house. Like Dick, they also saw something dark, almost menacing in T. "T. raised his eyes, as gray and disturbed as the drab August day. 'We'll pull it down,' he said. 'We'll destroy it!'""T. was giving his orders with decision: it was as though this plan had been with him all his life. . . Eventually all of the boys became T's workers. It seemed T's goal in life was to destroy this house, and by using his friends, he was able to accomplish his goal.The real exposure to evil, however, was to the owner of the house, Old Misery. Suspecting nothing of T., Old Misery had let him into the house for a look around. He had not an inkling of an idea about the capabilities of T. and the gang. He didn't even appear suspicious. Old Misery was tricked into the lav by an innocent-looking boy. He had positively no idea what he was dealing with. It wasn't merely a boy, put a force all too powerful for him alone to fathom. "[Old Misery] felt dithery and confused and old" After that he didn't know what was going on. "After a while it seemed to him that there were sounds in the silence - they were faint and came from the direction of his house . . . he thought of burglars - perhaps they had employed the boy as a scout, but why should burglars engage in what sounded more and more like a stealthy form of carpentry?" Old Misery spent the night in the loo, unaware of the dark cloud hovering about his house and it's potential for destruction. Also too late, Old Misery encounters, but still does not fully realize, the evil lurking about and the chaos it has caused. In horrible wonder, he surveyed the damage. "He was wearing a gray blanket to which flakes of pastry adhered. He gave a sobbing cry. "My house," he said. "Where's my house?" In that instant, his wisdom gathered up over the years wasn't worth a dime; he became a scared little boy, the victim of his own ignorance, and a force he could not understa...
