Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/119

  away from the more intimate retreats of his victim; but the dining-room—I have seen more cleanly barracoons!

"Rustlings had preceded me as I had moved through the house; they do in Oriental houses, you know, Doctor, just as they do in the forest, wherever furtive beings hold their existence. Now, I moved too rapidly for these rustlings, and in the kitchen I flushed some frightened Dyak servants—three women and an old man.

Take me to your mistress,' I said to one of the women, and I said it kindly, but I do think I have never seen more fright on a woman's face. After all, Doctor, to witness the horror of some one else is far more gruesome than the thing itself, is it not?"

I thought of the look I had once seen in the eyes of a man whose shoulder had been carried away by a piece of shrapnel, as he had glanced down and seen his wound.

"Nothing is more contagious than dread," I murmured. [ 103 ]