Page:Lynch Williams--The girl and the game.djvu/125

 touched them: they were stone cold (fortunately).

"Hasn't been dead long," said Reddy, lighting another match. "I can tell by the convolutions of the toes—look out! Be careful, because—because they'll discover the mark. Don't do that, Jere!"

But Jeremiah, who had opened his knife, now pricked the sole of the foot before Reddy could draw him away. This had no effect, however, except to cause the toes of that foot to double in slightly, and then slowly to straighten out again as the blade was removed. It looked so ghastly that even Jeremiah seemed startled as well as Reddy, who glibly whispered: "Reflex action of the posterior athnoid." Then the match went out. "Come on," said Reddy. "No more matches. And I—to tell the truth, I've had enough of this."

Jeremiah had not elected this course of study, and so did not contradict his young friend's diagnosis. But he said he wasn't at all frightened. "That's nothing," he remarked as they gained the fresh air of