Page:A Wild-Goose Chase - Balmer - 1915.djvu/139

Rh twice; but his voice came merely as a sound without articulation. Then: "Hedon! Hedon!" The echo of the word reached.

What were the syllables lost afterward? Was she unable to hear them because they told her that Eric was dead? But at least they had found some word; they had learned something. She strained forward.

"Hedon! Hedon!"—the words came again—"reached land safe!"

She caught at the rail to steady herself as she trembled. McNeal put his hand upon hers. She looked to him and saw that he had understood the same.

"Thomas!" he shouted back to the men in the boat. "What of him? What about Thomas?"

"Both reached the cabin safe. Thomas died there. Hedon buried him and went on alone!"

"They got to the cabin," McNeal was repeating incredulously to himself. "They got to the cabin; and Thomas—poor Ian—died there."

"Poor Mr. Thomas," the girl reiterated. "But they said Eric was safe. He went on?"