In a great new cemetery, two miles away, the old people buried their dead, and came back to a house full of shadow and silence. The days passed slowly, and the two old people had little to say to each other. The house seemed strangely silent, and they hardly dared to speak of their boy. About a week after, the old man woke in the night and heard his wife weeping by the window. She had been crying, and he could not comfort her. "Come back to bed," he said gently. "You will be cold." "The paw!" she cried wildly. "We still have the monkey's paw!" "We have had two wishes," he said. "There is one wish left." "Wish our boy alive again!" she begged. Her eyes were shining, and her voice was strange and eager. The old man sprang up in horror. "He has been dead ten days," he said. "And besides, he is buried. Do you want me to bring back a torn and broken thing?" But she would hear nothing, and her face was terrible to see. But his wife would not listen, and pressed the paw into his hand. Trembling, the old man raised it to the light and made the wish. The candle threw flickering shadows on the wall, and the room was very still. He waited, but nothing came, and at last he went back to bed, cold and disappointed. The cold wind moaned in the chimney, and somewhere a stair creaked in the dark. A few minutes later a quiet knock came at the front door. He lay still, afraid to move, until it sounded again, louder than before. Then his wife jumped from the bed. "It is Herbert!" she cried. She ran to the door, but her husband caught her arm. "Don't let it in!" he cried, but she struggled to be free. The knocking grew louder, again and again, echoing through the house. A cold sweat ran down the old man's face as he listened. He heard his wife drag a chair to the door and pull back the heavy bolt. Wild with terror, the old man went down on his knees, searching the floor for the paw. He found it just as a third great knock filled the house. He raised the paw and frantically breathed his last wish. The knocking stopped suddenly, although its echo was still in the house. For a long moment neither of them moved or spoke. He heard the chair drawn back, and the door opened. A cold wind rushed in, and a long, loud cry of disappointment came from his wife. He ran down to her side, and then to the gate beyond. The street lamp opposite shone on a quiet and empty road. There was nothing there at all, only the wind and the empty street.