Uncanny Tales

the late summer sunlight. To the southward, low down, a faint haze told where the sea lay. The stream at his feet sang its queer, crooning moor-song as it rambled onward, chuckling to meet a bed of

of the stream arrested his attention. A few concentric ripples widened, travelled towards him, and were absorbed in the current. His lips curved into a little smile and he reached for his rod.

ne in your favour," sa

thistledown on the surface. There was a tiny splash, a laugh, and the little greenheart rod flicked a trout high over his

nard. "That was meant

searched the heather, and as the fateful seconds sped, at last laid dow

nd closed round it a tiny flutter passed through the fingerling; it gave a final gasp and was still. Knitting his brows in almost comic

d encouragingly. "Oh, buck up! Y

" was all wrong. I

nard regarded the speckled atom

rnity would have made just the difference between li

ing moss had rounded its edges, and in places segments had crumbled away, giving foothold to clumps of fern and starry moor-flowers. On three sides the surrounding ground rose steeply, form

used, still holding the corpse. "You shall be a sacr

d from the top of the great stone. Then he retraced his steps and gathered a handful of bleached twigs that the winter floods had left stran

edibly still, even the voice of the stream ceasing to be a sound distinct. A wagtail bobbing in the shallows fled into the waste. Overhead the smoke trembled upwards, a faint stain against a cloudless sky. The stillness seeme

e, there ought to be mo

and had thick, fleshy leaves. Hastily, he snatched a handful and piled it on the fire.

fluttered across the stream and dabbled in a puddle among some stones. Rabbits began to show themselves and frisk with lengthened shadows in the clear spaces. Maynard l

sing bright-eyed upon his lawful occasion, paused on the border of the stream to consider the stranger, and was lost

atching the western sky turn from glory to glory. Over his head the smoke of the sacrifice still curled

and, rising, stood expecta

r climbed into view against the pure sky. A young girl, breeched, booted

rd acknowledged her presence by raisin

e considered the embers on the stone, and then her grey eye

slow way-a rather

ut!" He nodded gravely at the stone. "That was a burnt sacrifice." With

ing in his voice, the wholesome, lean face and humorous eyes,

at it? I w

reins and turned

tired shadows in her eyes. The faint droop of her mouth, too, betrayed intense fatigue. "You look fagged. I do

rooding in the twilight, and half hesita

ngry, too. Have you

at's more, my child, you'll have a little fainting

or a minute," he

d as he turned to his satchel she slipped out of

. She drank with a wry little face, and coughed. "I put

over her arm. The colour crept back into her cheeks.

myself twice," she explained between frank mouthfuls. "I'm

the way now

ss." She looked at him, her long-lashed eyes a little serious. "But you-ho

rd la

rm September night. "I think I shall sleep her

me the l

lave g

olly Heave

by her unsmiling eyes.

ere." The words came jerkily, as if she w

conventional mode of life, and was prepared for the u

superst

and shook

But what has that

ed, flushin

y that the moor here is haunted. There

hteen, perhaps. She had said her people "didn't fuss." That mean

s anyone be

ded, un

n and covered with mud. He had been run to death; there was no wound on his body, but his heart was broken." Her thoughts recurred to the stone against which they leant, an

but the seriousness

heathen deity-Ashtoreth, or Pugm, or Baal

rose to

e about here are superstitious, an

p with a qu

ll around is so beautiful." He helped her to mount and walked to the top of the mound at her stirrup. "Tell me

her hand with half-shy friendliness. "Thank you for your niceness to me." Her eyes grew s

a canter. Maynard stood looking after her till she was swallowed by the dusk

and had no nerves to speak of; yet, as his eyes followed the line of the ridge against the sky, he experienced terror, the elementary, nauseating terror of childhood, when the skin tingl

the splash of water about him, realised that it was the brook b

of courage and self-respect one conscious thought alone remained. Whatever it was that was even then at his heels, he must not see it. At all costs it must be behind him, and, resisting the sudden terrified impulse to look over h

wiry man at the height of his physical

ilt to run for his life. He was r

es, crashing through whortle and meadowsweet, stumbling over peat-cuttings and the workings of forgotten tin-mines. An idiotic popular tune

eathing behind him, and, redoubling his efforts, stepped into a rabbit hole. He was up

with a rattle in the stillness of the night; he bore away to the left. A moment later there was Something nearly at his left elbow, and he smelt again the nameless, f?tid reek. H

ness; and ever the same unreasoning terror urged him on. The moon and ragged skyline swam about him; the blood drummed deafeningly in his ears, and his eyeballs felt as

was running-shambling now-along a road. The loping pursuit of th

ll in wavelike undulations. Still he ran, with sobbing gasps and limbs that swerved under his weight; at his elbow hung death unnam

ening on the dew, showed the dark circular scars of the turf where, for a generation, the smith's peat fires had heated the great iron hoops that tyred the wheels of the wains. One of these was eve

people to death. But iron-

s the uneven tufts of grass. His feet caught in some obstruction and he pitched forward

e around him, and with it the be

ulling on his gloves. A big car was passing slowly up the village s

iver, a fair-haired girl, l

the matter here? Nothing wrong with

shook his h

steriously ill last night just outside the forge, and they brought him in. It's a most queer case, and very

her hand from the brake-lever. Something in

queried. "What diagnosis have you

tally he is in a great state of excitement and terror, lapsing into delirium at times-that is really the most serious feature

, holding her underlip

ike-in appearance, I

smile crossed th

remarkable athletic build. He is calmer now, and I have left Matthew

m her seat and steppe

or him, to ask him to lunch with us. Do you think I might see him for a minute?

ge. The doctor led the way upstairs and opened a door.

n with exhaustion, with shadows round his closed eyes, lay Maynard; one hand lying on the counte

now him?"

r firm, cool hand over

d I warned him. Tell

, careful nursing

es and looked away, a faint colour tingeing her cheeks. "Will you go and telephone

is very kind of you, Lady Dorothy, and I will go and tele

is feet go down the narrow stairs.

ghter, looked at each other, and there was in their glance t

old Jarge T

orothy

ve, these men! They think because they are so big a

round that us found un. Dogs barkin' wakened us up. But it'd ha' had un, else--" A sound downstair

of the room and

luttered and opened; his eyes rested full on the girl's face. For a moment there was n

id in a weak v

re that her hand was still on his, but the twitching

told y

head with a

ou that c

the iron hoop on the ground outside

aged her h

ight-since you say

e stairs. Maynard met he

d. "I have found somethi

came in. He glanced at Maynar

Lady Dorothy!" he sa