Part 15 (2/2)

”Did you hear her call--loud? I knew--I came--no--_no!_” he fairly screamed, as Warde tried to lift his head and discover what he held ”I came back--back to life--I was dead--you would have buried me--can't you see I'm alive--you--scouts--”

His head shook, he clutched at his breast, the hand which Roy tried to grasp trembled and was like ice The two scouts saw that there was no use talking with hi in a posture of abject terror he clutched the object which he held tighter against his breast, his head bowed and shaking, his whole form in convulsion

”Do you knohere you are, Blythey?” Warde asked

”In the lower field--where they'rehay,” Blythe answered

They tried nohim

”We want you to come with us, Blythey,” Roy said His voice was friendly, kindly, albeit he was himself disturbed and fearful For neither of the boys knehat this pathetic, deht do next

”We're your friends,” Warde added ”Can't you get up and coo to bed Don't you remember all about camp-fire, and Pee-wee, and all the fun we had? There isn't any voice now, it's gone away”

But for all their kindness and resolve to help him, they felt certain qualms, both of conscience and of fear The all too conclusive proof that he was a fugitive and that his hands and disordered brain were red with blood were strengthened by this uncanny adventure

To them the vision that he had seen, the voice that had lured hiht him to this pitiful state were the face and voice of his victim--a woman He had seen her, as such wretched, re silently above them in the brisk wind seemed alht his crihostly tower

It was not without a feeling of relief that the two scouts heard the cheering voices of their coh the darkness They had been aroused, no doubt, by the piercing screao down,” said Roy; ”you stay up here, don't leave him alone”

At the foot of the ladder the leader of the Silver Foxes waited for the ood to see theuish their hurriedly donned and incomplete raiment

He saw their looks of fear and inquiry, saw the alitation in Pee-wee's round face and sleepy eyes

”It's all right,” Roy said, trying to control his jerky, nervous speech

”Where's Warde?”

”Shh, he's all right--Blythe--Blythe is up there--he's in a kind of fit--he's crazy--he's the--he's the one, all right--he's Darrell--shh, _wait_--don't go up Do you see this? It's one of those banshees Harry Donnelle told us about--the kind the soldiers used to put up in the wind the noise It sort of--you know--spoke to him--that's what I think”

If Roy had rehtly tales which their friend Lieutenant Donnelle had brought froht have saved himself and his coht

Or if they had ever been in Holland or Flanders they enious youngsters, that hter when strategically placed on the tops of wind under enforced idleness in trenches and dugouts, would often beguile their ti these miniature calliopes to catch the wind And it is not out of reason to surions was startled and confounded by the aerial lamentations of these harar box, a few strips of wire, and some odds and ends of ood suffice for the manufacture of the Flanders banshee There is now an American banshee with all modern improvements (patent not applied for) invented and controlled by Pee-wee Harris But that is not a part of the present story

CHAPTER XXIII

AFTER THE STORM