The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-10-21
Copyright. 1910, by Louis Joseph Vance.l
CHAPTER VII.

every nerve and sense upon the rack.
Though he heard 1t no more, still that
cry rang in his head, and he could but
wait, smitten dumb and motionless,
feeling his chilled 1esh crawl en-
thralled by fearsome shapes con-
jured up by an Imagination striving
pened-wait it seemed) intermin-
ably; for what he hardly knew or
guessed, unless 1t were for a repeti
ton or some explanation of that in
applicable cry.
He received neither His straining
faculties detected none but familiar
noises.
Insensibly he grew more calm So
silent was the world, seemingly so
saturated with the spirit of brooding
peace, that he was tempted to be-
lieve he had dreamed that first shrek,
to which he had wakened, and that
the second was but an echo Of it in
his brain: some hideous trick of
nerves, a sort of waking haliucination,
to be explained only on psychological
grounds.
Appleyard? What of him? Was
there any connection to be traced be-
tween his mysterious disappearance
from the Echo and that weird, un-
earthly scream? Was there really
land near, and had the little man
found 1t only to become the victim OF
some frightful, nameless peril? Could
ho+
help :? And in what dread ex-
tremity :?
There was nothing he could do, no
way to reach the man. The tender
was gone, the shore tnvisihle-and
who should say how far distant? 9th
erwise he would not have hesitated to
swim for it.
Presently it occurred to him to won
der where the Echo lay-off what
land ADpleyard's responses to his IN
quiries several hours back, returned
to memory. The name. No Mans
Land, intrigued. He interrupted his
vigil to Investigate such sources OF in
formation as he had at hand.
In the cabin again, with the lamp
number 112 Of the admirable series
published by the Coast and Geodetic
Survey, delineating with wonderful
accuracy the photography of Buz-
yards Bay and Vineyard and Nan
tucket Sounds, together with the topo-
graphy Of the littoral and islands.
With pencil 1t was easy to trace the
ch15o
Dor through Quick's Hole; little to
the east of which, say of Robinson s
Hole, the fog had overtaken them. TO
the south and east of that point lay
Martha's Vineyard, for all the world
like a trussed fowl In profile. And
there-yes, due south of Gay Head
was No Mans Land, It's contour much
| that of an infants shoe, the heel dig
| ging into the Atlantic. Comparison
| with the scale demonstrated 1t to be
| roughly mile and f1ve-eighths long by
| mile wide-extreme measurements.
! Coast stared at 1t with renewed in
| terest. for the first time convinced OF
| the existence Of spot so oddly
| named. number of black dots along
| It's northern shore seemed TO indicate
buildings-but Appleyard had distinct
| ly said "uninhabited
| Coast turned out the lamp and went
| back to the deck
There was nothing TO be seen. moth
ing to do.
He f1dgeted
| Then out of the confusion of his
| temper, In which ennui stalked in sin
gular companionship with perturba-
thought. one of those stray bits Of In
| formation, mostly culled from desul-
| tory reading, that clutter the back Of
| every mans brain.
| He happened TO remember hearing,
| some time, some where, that fog rare-
| ly clings to the surface of moving wa
ter; that, by putting ones vision upor
plane almost horizontal with the
water, 1t Is ordinarily possible to SCI
| for some distance roundabout.
There may be something il 1t
No harm to try"
| Forthwith he scrambled out upor
| the stern. from which, after some in
tricate maneuvering and by dint OF
considerable physical ingenuity. be
managed to suspend himself. at peri
| Of q ducking with his head near the
| water.
| He was promptly justified Of his
| pains; the theory proved itself-ir
| that one instance at least; between
| the slowly undulant floor, CLASSY and
| colorless, and the ragged fringe Of
| the mist curtain, he discovered a
! definite space
| Directly astern and, roughly, some
| forty feet away, a shelving stretch Of
| pebbly beach, softly Tapped by low
voiced ripples. shut in the view. The
| Echo's tender. drawn up beyond the
| waters edge. bisected it.
| Good" said Coast, distracted, re
| covering from his constrained posi-
! ton
| Curiosity gTtpped him strongly, eau
| ton contending vainIy; he knew quite
| well that he would never bide content
until he had probed for the cause and
| source and solved the mystery OF that
| wild cry In the night just gone.
| Moreover, he felt in a measure re
! sponsible for Appleyard. Surely there
| must be some strange reason for his
| protracted absence.
| Abandoning himself, deaf 10 the
| ~