Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-01-05

She was trying to reconcile her
mind and her emotions to these two
facts-that Steve was dead, and that
he had not been traitor. She saw,
as Mr.. Lanning had seen so clearly,
that Steve's dangerous game had
been an ingenious hoax, the sole pur-
pose of which was to trap the leading
Nazi in Hawaii. 1t left her stunned
and limp.
She was vaguely aware that tho
two men were still quarreling, with
one of them insisting she was All
nah Boland, the other insisting she
was not.
She was vaguely aware that the
rain had stopped. Water fell in
short bright daggers from the caves
instead of in long wavering wires. A
breeze sprang up and blew damply
in her face. She felt cold and numb.
A black thing that she thought at
first was a bat came floating in the
window on limp black wings. It
was followed by another and anoth-
er. She realized they were giant
moths. One of them brushed her
face. The great black wing was
damp and cold. She opened her
mouth to scream, but no sound
came.
The giant black moths futtered
aimlessly about the room. One Of
them, with slowly Tapping wings,
flew behind her. She was sure she
felt it settle in her hair. She felt
chills all through her body.
Then she saw the centipede. II
had evidently crawled out Of the
kitchen. She had never seen a GEN.
tipede like Thrown and shiny and
fully eight inches long.
1t crawled along the other side Of
the room. 1t was so large, so mon
strous that she was sure she was
imagining it. Then Mr.. Lanning saw
it. He cried: Look at that thingl
Pierre! Don't stamp on it! We must
find a buffo! We must find a buffo,
Pierre, and try an experiment."
What is buffo?" Pierre in
quired.
"a giant toad. The buffos were
imported few years ago to kill the
insects that eat the cane. I've heard
that buffo will kill a centipede."
He was painting. pierre! Fetch me
buffo! I want buffo, at once!
Take the flashlight. You'll find one
easily on night like this. They're
swarming on night like this!'
Pierre's surly growl: mot now"
"YeS-noW! At oncei"
"But-"
eat once, I said!"
every well, my friend. You shall
have your buffo!"
Zorie did not see him go, but she
heard the door slam. The pungent
mouldy smell she had been noticing
seemed stronger.
Mr.. Lanning came over to her.
He was no longer walking steadily.
"Miss Corey" he said, "you are so
lovely, so innocent and so clever
and l am so sorry"
Zorie closed her eyes.
ut is very curious" he said. "Do
you smell that? It's sour honey. It's
in these walls. The wild bees find
little holes in the outside walls and
crawl inside and build their combs
and fill them with honey and then
it goes sour. And there's no way to
get it out unless you tear the house
down! Men are sometimes very fool
ish, aren't they? l am referring to
love, my dear men so often
tear their houses down for a little
sour honey
Here is your buffo," said Pierre's
soft, low voice.
Zorie opened her eyes again. Pi-
ere had a huge gray toad in one
hand, a long stick in the other. He
put the toad on the floor and pushed
the centipede toward the toad.
1t was the largest toad Zorie had
ever seen. 1t squatted, with it's head
up, its little reptilian eyes blinking
in the soft yellow light. 1t must
have measured fully seven inches
across and it must, as it squatted,
have measured fully six inches in
height.
Zorie closed her eyes upon brain
that was slowly Keeling with sick.
ness. When she opened them, the
centipede was crawling over the buf.
70, and the buffo seemed unaware
of it. The centipede crawled over
the toad's reptilian gray face. When
it was crawling over the buffos
mouth, the mouth opened. The buffo
gulped fold of the centipede into
its mouth. Slowly, the struggling
centipede vanished into the toad.
Zorie wanted to scream, but she
hadn't the strength to scream. Mr..
Lanning was pounding on the table
with bottle.
"They eat them!" he cried. ''They
really dol"
Zorie now saw the long knife open
in Pierre's hand. She saw the flick
of the knife as it flew from his hand
to the floor. Its sharp point was
imbedded in the floor an inch from
the buffo. The buffo jumped. Pierre
kicked it across the room and into
the kitchen and out the back door.
He returned and stopped before
Zorie. His observation-disclosures
face came close to hers. "Ah-nah!"