The Tupelo journal., 1912-08-09
CHAPTER VII.

wait, smitten dumb aid 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
pened-wait ut seemed) intermin-
ably; for what he hardly knew or
guessed, unless it we're for a repeti-
ton or some explanation Of that in
explicable cry.
He received neither. His stratning
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-
iieve he had dreamed that first shrek,
20 which he had wakened, and that
the second was but In echo OF IT In
his brain: some hideous trick OF
nerves, a sort of waking hallucination.
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 v~R1. un-
earthly scream? Wa tAsss rdsaly
Hand near, and had IL little man
found It only to becomo The victim OF
some trightful, nameless peril? Could
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 it.
Presently it occurred to him to
der where the Echo lay-oh
land. A%ppleyard's responses to his In
u~uiries, 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 a chart
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
sucket Sounds, together with the topo-
graphy of the littoral and islands.
With pencil 1t was easy to trace the
Echo's course from New Bedford har-
Dor through Quick's Hole; a 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
sthere-yes, due south of Gay Head
was No Mans Land, its contour much
that of an infants shoe, the heel dig
cling into the Atlantic. Comparison
with the scale demonstrated 1t to be
sroughly a mile and f~1ve-eighths long by
q mile wide-extreme measurements.
Coast stared at it with renewed in
terest. for the first time convinced OF
the existence of a spot so ODDLY
named. A number of black dots along
Ats 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 fdgeted.
Then out of the confusion of his
temper, in which ennui stalked in sim
gular companionship with %perturba-
tion, he CHANGED upon an odd end OF
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
er; that, by putting ones vision upon
u plane almost horizontal with the
water, 1t is ordinarily possible to see
For some distance roundabout.
There may be something in it !.
No harm to try"
Forthwith he scrambled out upon
The stern, from which, after some In
Sricate maneuvering and by dint Of
considerable physical ingenuity. he
managed to suspend himself. at peril
bf q ducking, with his head near the
water.
He was promptly justified Of his
pains; the theory proved itself-in
hat one instance at least; between
he slowly undulant floor, CLASSY and
olorless, and the ragged fringe OF
he mist curtain, he discovered a
&eflnite space.
Directly astern and, roughly, some
&orty feet away, a shelving stretch OF
&ebbly beach, softly Tapped by low
7oIced ripples, shut in the view. The
E:cho's tender, drawn up beyond the
EATERS edge, bisected 1t.
Good" said Coast, distracted, re-
<cvering from his constrained posi-
on.