Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/279

   from the illuminated room I noticed that her slim fingers were closing and opening as if- she were in pain. Her light footsteps fell in unison with the beat of the bamboula.

"My host and I talked on different things, and still Madame paced back and forth, and every time she passed the barred zone of light I saw the white fingers writhing in and out, and at times clutching the light fabric of her skirt in a grip that left it creased and seamed—and still the drum beat on and on. Fouchère's manner of speech had changed; his statements were short and arbitrary, as if challenging contradiction; his chair had come down to all four legs, and he sat bolt upright, tense, together, as if prepared to spring upward at a bound. As the light over the mountain glowed brighter I could see the silhouette of his straight back against the sky, as straight and cleanly cut as one of the posts of the verandah.

"Soon Madame paused in her promenade, [ 263 ]