Part 34 (1/2)

It seemed ages he stood there, staring in horrible fascination at the man in the river--and then the man moved!

He was advancing slowly sh.o.r.eward, with a curious limp, as he had entered Burrage's store. Creed's ashen lips moved stiffly, and his tongue seemed to fill his mouth.

”I've got 'em! I've got 'em,” he maundered. ”'S the booze, an' I'm seein' things!”

His groping brain grasped at the idea, and it gave him strength--better the ”snakes” than _that_! But he must do something, the man was coming toward him--only hip-deep now--

”Go 'way! Go 'way!” he shrieked in a sudden frenzy of action. ”d.a.m.n you! Y're dead! D'ye hear me! Go 'way from here!”

Suddenly his weakening knees stiffened under him, and he reached swiftly for the rifle on the ground at his feet.

Slowly and deliberately he raised it, c.o.c.ked it, rested it across a log, and took deliberate aim at the center of the man's face--twenty paces away.

”Bang!” The crack of the rifle sounded loud and sharp in the tense stillness.

The apparition, at the water's edge, raised its hand slowly to its lips, and from between its teeth took a small object which it tossed toward the other. The object struck lightly against Creed's breast and dropped to the ground.

He looked, downward--it was a 30-40 bullet--his own! He stared dumbly at the thing on the ground. Then, automatically, he fired again, taking careful aim.

Again the ghost's hand moved slowly toward its mouth, and again the light tap upon his chest--and two bullets lay upon the ground at his feet.

His head felt strange and large, and inside his skull things were moving--long, gray maggots that twisted, and writhed, and squirmed, like fis.h.i.+ng worms in a can.

He laughed flatly, a senile, cackling laugh. He did not want to laugh, but laughed again and, stooping, reached for the bullets. He stared at his fingers, bewildered; they groped helplessly at a spot a foot from the place where lay the two bullets with their s.h.i.+ning steel jackets.

He must move his fingers to the right--this way. Again he stared--puzzled; they were moving farther and farther toward the left--away from the bullets. Again the dry, cackling laugh. He would fool his fingers. He would move them _away_ from the bullets.

He tried, and the next instant the groping fingers closed unerringly upon the little cylinders. The laugh became an inarticulate babble of satisfaction, his knees collapsed, and he pitched forward and lay still with wide, staring eyes, while upon the corners of his mouth appeared little flecks of white foam.

A shadow fell across his face--he was staring straight into the eyes of the greener, who stood, dripping wet with the water of the river into which he had fallen more than two months before.

The man leaped from the ground in a sudden frenzy of terror, and fled screaming into the forest, cras.h.i.+ng, wallowing, tearing through the underbrush, he plunged, shrieking like a demon.

The greener stood alone in the clearing and listened to the diminis.h.i.+ng sounds.

At length they ceased and, in the silence, the greener turned toward the sparkling river, and as he looked there came to his ear faint and far, one last, thin scream.

CHAPTER x.x.xI

THE ROBE OF DIABLESSE

It required three days of hard labor to remove the fifty-two bird's-eye maple logs to a position of safety. Jacques made a trip to the log camp, returning with a stout rope and an armload of baling wire which he collected from the vicinity of the stables.

The fact that bird's-eye maple logs, when green, will sink in water, rendered necessary the use of two large pine logs as floats. These were connected at the ends and in the middle with rope sufficiently long to permit four of the heavier logs to rest upon the ropes between the floats.

The raft thus formed was laboriously towed up-stream to the eddy where the bird's-eye logs were wired together, weighted with stones, and allowed to sink.

During the whole time Jeanne worked tirelessly by the side of the men, and when the last log rested safely upon the bottom of the river, and the scars were carefully removed from the bank, Bill surveyed the result with satisfaction.