Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/220

210 thought she had come upon him. The voice seemed only a few feet away from her. She opened her arms with a glad cry:—

"Ah! I have found you at last."

Then a crushing blow upon the forehead knocked her to the earth. She had run against a tree in the darkness. She drew herself up beneath it and moaned. Far away she could hear the voice again, "Follow me, Eileen."

A great terror came to her; she shivered, and hid her bruised face in her hands. He was dead—oh, yes! dead; it was his ghost who was calling to her, and flying before her like a false marsh-light. She shuddered with the fear of death upon her. He was near, she felt him; in a moment he would put his cold, dead hands upon her. She shrieked, "Don't touch me!" and heard his voice far away calling to her pitifully,—

"Follow me, Eileen."

She sprang up, all her love awake for him. "Living or dead, I will follow you." She cast her fear from her.

"Where are you, Alanna?"

All around her came the singing of grasshoppers amongst the rough grass and heather. The sound seemed to her like the turning of