Page:The Mystery of Madeline Le Blanc (1900).djvu/67

Rh human sentiment, that he was crawling amid the bones and decayed flesh of the dead, unconsciously caused him to halt, until he cursed himself for cowardice, and proceeded. There was that horrible stillness that made the sound of his own creeping and breathing roar in his ears like the crashing of billows on a stony beach. He thought a thousand eyes were fastened upon him and that he was being followed.

Earth—fresh earth! His hand sank into it, with the other he could reach the fence, along which he walked to the shovel, counting his steps; and in a few minutes he was back on the spot. After feeling the dimensions of the mound, he began to dig. Each shovelful of earth that fell to the ground roared like the discharge of a cannon between intervals of death-like silence in the still night. The dead awaked in their graves; and some came and stood by his side; yet he did not stop digging. A hand descended slowly upon him, and when it touched his shoulder, it broke and fell to the ground, he thought. The figure moved away, and the hand lay squirming like a snake amid