It came on her with a shock, thrilling, terrible, yet not altogether
unpleasant. She rose, her hands clenched at her sides and her eyes
abnormally wide as they stared in the same direction as the eyes of
the two horses held. Yet for all her preparation she nearly fainted
when a voice sounded directly behind her, a pleasantly modulated
voice: "Look this way. I am here, in front of the fire."
She turned about and the two horses, quivering, whirled toward that
sound.
She stepped back, back until the embers of the fire lay between her
and that side of the little clearing. In spite of herself the
exclamation escaped her--"McGurk!"
The voice spoke again: "Do not be afraid. You are safe, absolutely."
"What are you?" "Your friend."
"Is it you who followed me up the valley?"
"Yes."
"Come into the light. I must see you." A faint laughter reached her
from the dark.
"I cannot let you do that. If that had been possible I should have
come to you before."
"But I feel--I feel almost as if you are a ghost and no man of flesh
and blood.
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