Page:Twilight of the Souls (1917).djvu/353

Rh hands, dug up sand. What was it seeking, his rooting imagination? What was it seeking in the deep pit, why was it flinging the sand around him. . . just as Addie once told him that Ernst had dug and flung up sand. . . in the dunes. . . in the dunes at Nunspeet? . . . What! . . . What! . . . Was he going mad too! . . . Was he going mad. . . like Ernst? Was he going mad. . . like Ernst? . . . A cold sweat broke out over his chilly, shivering body. Was he going mad? . ..

"Gerrit! . . . Gerrit!"

A voice sounded very far away through the house, which had suddenly become very deep, very wide, very big.

"Gerrit! . . . Gerrit!"

He could hear the hurrying footsteps on the creaking stairs, but he was powerless to answer.

"Gerrit! . . . Gerrit! . . . Where are you?"

The door opened. It was Adeline, looking for him. . . in the dark:

"Gerrit! . . . Are you here? . ..

Even yet he did not answer.

"Where are you, Gerrit?"

"Here."

"Are you here?"

"Yes."

"Why are you sitting in the dark . . . in the cold? . . . What are you doing here, Gerrit? . . ."

"I . . . I was looking for something."