Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-08-11
No MANS '
LANDA.n@MANGE
6E5LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE
es.1 ILLUSTRATIONS Is 112aaE !!'s!E 81 1Y >*
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CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VII.
Some moments elapsed. Coasts
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 flesh crawl, en-
thralled by fearsome shapes con-
jured up by an imagination striving
vainly to account for what had hap
ably: for what he hardly knew or
guessed, unless 1t were for repeti-
ton or some explanation Of that In
explicable 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 1t in
his brain: some hideous trick OF
nerves, sort Of waking hallucination,
to be explained only on psychological
grounds.
And yet
Appleyard? What Of him? Was
here 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 II. only to become the victim OF
some frightful, nameless peril? Gould
that have been his voice, calling for
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 invisible-and
who should say how far distant? 9th
erwise he would not have hesitated to
swim for 1t.
Presently 1t occurred to him to won-
der where the Echo lay-of what,
land Appleyard's responses to his in,
auiries, 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
turned high, he dragged out chart
number liz OF the admirable series
published by the Coast and Geodetic .
Survey, delineating with wonderful
accuracy the photography of Buzz
cards Bay and Vineyard and Nan.
sucket Sounds, together with the topo-!
graphy OF the littoral and Islands.
With pencil it was easy to trace the
Echo's course from New Bedford har-
Dor through Qulck'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 q trussed fowl in profile. And
shere-yes. due south of Gay Head
vas No Mans Land, its contour much
that Of an infants shoe. the heel dig,
cling into the Atlantic. Comparison
with the scale demonstrated it to DO
roughly mile and five.eighths long by
mile wide-extreme measurements.
Coast stared at 1t with renewed in
lerest, for the first time convinced Of
the existence of = spot so oddly,
named. A number of black dots along
It's northern shore seemed to indicate.
buildings-but Appleyard had distinct,
" said "uninhabited."
Coast turned out the lamp and went
back to the deck.
There was nothing to be seen. moth,
ing to do.
He fldgeted.
Then out Of the confusion of his
temper, in which ennui stalked In sim;
gular companionship with perturba-;
lion, he CHANGED upon an odd end Of
thought, one of those stray bits Of in
formation, mostly culled from desul-
,ory reading. that clutter the back of
every mans brain. :,
He happened to remember hearing,
tome time. some where, that fog rare
~ clings to the surface OF moving wa.
ter: that. by putting ones vision upon
o plane almost horizontal with the
water, It is ordinarily possible to see
for some distance roundabout.
There may be something In it i
!. No harm to try"
Forthwith he scrambled out upon
the stern, from which. after some in
iA4SBS0 AAAo00Uv0hAAo anu Wy uAuL VI
Considerable physical ingenuity, he
managed to suspend himself, at peril
,of . ducking. with his head near the
wstsr.
He was promptly justified of his
pains: the theory proved itself-in
that one instance at least; between
the slowly undulant floor, CLASSY and
ioolorless, and the ragged fringe OF
the mist curtain, he discovered a
definite space.
Directly astern and, roughly, some
forty feet away. shelving stretch of
pebbly beach, softly Tapped by low
voiced ripples, shut In the view. The
Echo's tender, sdrawn up beyond the |
waters edge. bisected It,
Good" said Coast, distracted, re-
covering from his constrained posi-
tom.
Curiosity gripped him strongly, eau
don contending vainly; he knew quite i
well that he would never bide content |
until he mad 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 |