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I returned to check the door, but I didn’t find the doorbell nor any caller; instead I
discovered two steel rings, one in the door and other in the concrete frame, skewered by a
heavy iron padlock.

Discouraged I leaned against the gate, trying to take a determination. The most
reasonable would be to leave a comeback in the day, but the supposition that would be
labourers or even familiars of Uncle Kurt retained me, to whom my presence would result very
strange. It was only missing to persist in the nocturnal quest, entering in the property in
despite of the padlock; only if that would be really the dwelling of my Uncle…

I remained indecisive, embraced to the mesh of the gate, sharpening the gaze towards
the path of the entrance, when it seemed to pass swiftly a light. It was just for a second, but
enough to relive the hope in some result that night.

I imagined that the Hall should be quite far, thereby no light reached to the gate,
intercepted, perhaps, by trees or obstacles. I didn’t think more and I climbed up through the
contiguous mesh of the gate. Except for the contretemps that a piece of my jacket «Safari»
remained in the barbed wires, which crowned the trestle of the mesh, I entered without
problems. Some seconds later, I moved calmly through the interior path, following with the
lantern the marked trails of vehicles that the same displayed. I had walked some hundred
metres, when the path turned abruptly to the right and within a group of leafy trees. One I took
this bend, I spotted at some thirty or forty metres a house albino type, of two floors, with roof
and half-round shingles which colour contrasted with the withe walls and the black bars of
windows and balconies. Against the obscurity of the night it leaned ghostly without,
apparently, any lights on.

This vision and the silence only broken by the buzz of cicadas, contributed to
demoralize me. I stopped for a while and contemplated the immense mass of the house,
shielded by the branches of some giant willows that were hammocked to the beat of a gentle
breeze. I had inexplicable desires to run and abandon such unreal scenery, but I recovered
immediately and advanced at huge steps with intention to call to the door to request the
presence of Uncle Kurt or Cerino Sanguedolce.

Was then when I heard.

I was at a few metres from the house when I felt coming from behind, towards the right,
a known sound… it was a penetrating whimper. A very especial lament that only who have
experience in the dog breeding can recognize. Because that whimper is the expression of the
attack desire that the dog manifests, when the master asks him to do it.

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