The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-10-28
Chapter 36 THE SEANck

A No IL Ell voice ans i" ered
 A Nesta's.
 "Yes, the storms going over. It'll draw down river now"
 Caroline had never heard this voice before, or any quite like it. It reminded her of fly in treacle. or voice heard in a thick muffling fog. It had a peculiar soft tonelessness that blurred the words, and the pitch never varied.
 Then we'd better get on with it, said Nesta. That last crash put me ! right off-but I shall have train to catch presently, and I've got to know about Jim before I go." Caroline had taken another step. but these words halted her. She had hot meant to listen, but when Nesta said. live got to know about Jim. :" she knew that she was going to lis ten. If there was anything to know hbcut Jim, she was going to know it. She heard the soft sound of some one moving, and the gurgle of wa ter or come other liquid. The smooth toneless voice said:
 Look into the pool" N
 What shall see? Suppose don't see anything" This was Nes.a.
 T don't say you'll see, nor what you'll see--there's no saying. If you don't see nothing, there's no harm done. Look in the pool" sAE
 Silence fell on the room-a curi ous silence, enclosed by the sound of restless, hurrying wind and dis tant thunder. It was like the still place at the center of the storm. Caroline edged forward and looked round the screen.
 The room was full of half light except for one bright patch-a light directed downwards upon a bowl of dark blue glass which appeared to be full of ink. It was about the size of hyacinth bowl, and it stood on stool with a worked cross-stitch top
 On one side of this stool Nesta Riddell was kneeling, and on the other, in a low afmless chair sat a plump elderly woman. This must be the other Caroline-Caroline Bus sell, Nesta Riddel's cousin. the housekeeper at Packham Hall.
 She had a pale fiat face. pale and plump, and tight curled fringe of faded hair controlled by net. Her hands lay in her lap. She leaned for ward over them, watching Nesta.
 There was no sound in the room at all, and the sound of the wind and the thunder was drowned in a steady downrush of rain. Time did not seem to pass; it stood still. Caro- line stood still, with her hand on the edge of the screen. She looked at Nesta, and Nesta looked into the bowl of ink.
 ALL at once the silence broke. 4 \ Nesta said in her hard voice:
 T cant see anything but fog"
 Sometimes the fog comes first" said Caroline Russell. Maybe it'll clear away" sf
 There's nothing but fog!" Nes' ta's voice was fretful. She jerked back suddenly on to her heels. There's nothing but fog going up and down like waves-it makes me giddy. I'm not going to look any more. didn't come all the way here to do the thing myself either"
 Caroline Russell spoke fin her smoothoyoice. see
 You've not got the patience-it needs patience. And you mustn't have your thoughts all churneG up 'neither-you might as well go stir ring up the mud in a pond and then expect to see clear to the bottoms"
 Do it yourself!" said Nesta sulk. fly. That's what came here for. If I could do 1t, I'd have done it at home. and no need to come all this way" Caroline Russell leaned down and took up the bowl of ink. She set it in the hollow of her lap and drew the lamp so that the light shone upon it. All her movements were s.ow, smooth. and noiseless. The li1h. from the lamp shone down cn 'h2 bowl of ink and on two pale. P
 handQ and Q fold nf <ss4-,