The Washington times., 1913-04-25
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Author of The Whispering Man
Copyright. 1872. Prank 4. Munsa, C,

meath us. Here and there a haIf-im-
oedded rock added to our discomfort.
We're nearly up" commented JEFF
frey present, 'and we may see some
thing from the top. Anyhow. we'll find
out II our directions right.
crest of the ridge and there paused a
moment-not for breath. badly as we
needed ft-but to give Jeffrey chance
TO squint through the trees and try TO
discover II we were headed in the right
direction.
Neither of US spoke, and now that
there was no cracking Of branches or
rustling of soggy leaves under foot, the
silence settled down almost oppres-
Suddenly I saw Jeffrey's body grow
tense. Hold your breath a second,
Drew" he said. Il want to listen"
For perhaps five seconds neither Of us
breathed. / was listening, too, with
all my ears, but I heard nothing. Pres
entity Jefrey gave little nod and we
started on again., Not straight down
the hill now. but at an angle
1t was easier to keep up with him
now. For some reason he wasn't set
ting quite SO fast a pace. Suddenly
stopped dead in my tracks. He looked
around at me curiously.
Its nothing" I whispered. I'm be-
ginning to see things, that's all. / hate
this half light. 1 thought I saw some
thing moving among the trees"
jeffrey .peered in the direction Of my
nod. Perhaps you did" he said "One
Of the islands namesakes. perhaps,
roofing around for acorns."
1T didn't look life that" I said. 1T
didn't look Hke-anything 1t could be,
jeffrey" / said.
Come along then" he said.
Neither of US had been paying at
tention to what was right under our
feet, and the result was that we both
lost our footing on the slippery decliv-
ity of the hill and went down with q
presently ! crashed through a dead
limb. stumbled over a cobblestone and
went down in a heap, with jeffrey lit
tie better of, beside me.
Each Of US started to say something
at the same instant. But before We
that froze US into silence-that arrested
us, half on foot and half on the ground.
as suddenly as II We had been turned to
stone.
What we heard was a terrified wailing
cry in q woman's voice. 1t didn't seem
far away-seemed right at hand in fact.
And yet 1t came from all around-came,
II anywhere, from right behind US.
For a while-a space of time that
could have been measured in seconds.
we started at each other, each wonder
ing II by any human possibility the
other could have heard what he did.
Then Jeffrey bent forward a little in
the preliminary effort to get to his feet.
But instead OF rising he reached out
suddenly and caught my arm and point
ed with It,
There. IN the wet clay. right at our
feet, was the single print of a womaE's
shoe. 1t was pointed toward US.
jeffrey Strengthened up and turned
around, and 1 followed him. Look.
he said.
A big rock was bedded In the hillside
we had Just come tumbling down. 1t
projected out in a great ledge. And
underneath II. shrinking back into the
dark OF the little cave it formed, I
saw
Well. Irene Fournier's face. The face
I had seen glowing with color on JEFF
frey's canvas-the face l had seen doz-
ems Of times In crude newspaper half
tones. as they had photographed her in
the morgue: the face of the girl In the
ice.
1t was as white now as 1t must have
been then, with a kind Of dreadful,