Page:Weird Tales Volume 3 Number 3 (1923-03).djvu/13

12 but were bitten in several places before a kick disabled the animal.

Hope fled from the hearts of the fugitives as they examined their wounds. They were haunted with the spectre of approaching madness.

They cursed and fought and strained on the chain until their wrists were torn and bleeding. They rolled on the ground and wept, then arose and continued their efforts with the chain.

The presence of each became decidedly objectionable to the other. Who would be the first victim of rabies? This question drove them to frenzied pulling and straining. The thought uppermost in the mind of each was a consuming desire to become separated from his companion. They fought the chain at intervals throughout the night, then continued their desperate journey.

The morning sun stole over the brooding hills. Wild animals feasted, gamboled and basked in the golden sunshine. A fisher emerged from a pool with a fish in its mouth, saw the fugitives, then fled. Grouse went about their affairs undisturbed, and a great eagle sailed in wide circles through the azure air.

Peace rested over wild things; but in the hearts of the two men raged an Inferno. They knew they were to die, and in a measure they comprehended the manner of their death.

As they paused to eat berries they eyed each other sharply, kneeling by the bushes, scratching their faces with brambles as they devoured the watery food. The berries sustained life; but did not strengthen them. Their bodies gradually weakened; but this weakness did not lessen the feverish vigor of their minds.

Each knew what the other was thinking. The one who showed the first symptoms of rabies would be killed, if possible, by his companion.

One afternoon they trudged through a thicket and approached a babbling brook. Hours had elapsed since their last drink, and Starr sank to the ground, eagerly gulping the water.

His thirst quenched, he glanced at Collins, then his body stiffened. Collins was not drinking. His eyes were becoming dull and fixed. A shiver shook his form as they regained their feet. The shaking spells recurred, his spasms becoming more intense.

Suddenly he gave an unearthly shriek and bared his teeth at Starr, who leaped aside in fright, swinging Collins around and around, his fright adding strength to his muscles. Panting and exhausted, they crouched on the ground, glaring and whimpering.

Another spasm shook Collins as they crossed a ridge. He tried to bite and tear Starr's arm. Remembering a fighting trick he had learned in the lumber camps, Starr lunged, with his left knee extended, striking Collins in the stomach. They fell to the ground, Collins made temporarily helpless from the blow. Starr again drove his knee into the mad man's abdomen. Collins raised his head, and Starr dashed his own head against it, the impact driving Collins' head against a sharp stone and rendering him unconscious.

A new difficulty arose; for Starr could not free himself from the helpless body. Its weight hindered his progress as he moved from bush to bush, greedily devouring berries.

When he lay down to rest, the mad man was beside him. He dare not fall asleep while expecting his companion's return to consciousness.

The next day the increasing horror of his predicament caused him to grow hysterical. He called for help, and listened in terror to the lonesome echoes.

Toward evening he saw that Collins was dying. The approaching darkness caused him to stumble and fight through the brush, dragging the burden alongside him.

He came to a rusted spur of track, abandoned since the lumber mill at Rafter had closed. The sight of the rusty rails, and the warmth of the rising sun served to clear his mind; he remembered that the hermit's shack was north of this track.

As he stumbled along, making slow headway, he felt a change creeping over him. He was near a brook and passed a pool of water, and recoiled in fright from its limpid coolness. Spasms shook him and he looked for something to rend and tear. During lucid intervals, between spasms, he struggled grimly through the brush. Each attack was leaving him weaker.

When evening came he looked upon imaginary sights which added to his desperation. His mad brain showed foul vampires flapping through the air about him, throwing water from their wings. And from every side hideous imps called his name, extending vessels of water and inviting him to drink. He sought to slay them; but they recoiled with demoniac grins, only to renew their torments. He thought Collins arose, gazed at him with cadaverous eyes, and asked him to hurry to a pool where they could drink and splash and swim. With bared teeth, Starr showed his displeasure at such an invitation.

He was panting now, and darkness had fallen. His tormentors still offered him water; but between spasms he made slow progress, until a light appeared in the darkness. Gradually the vague outlines of a cabin showed close at hand.

Starr was more normal; he cried with joy at the thought of his relief when the hermit had severed the chains which bound him. Once free, he would smite his tormentors.

He reached the window through which the light streamed, thrust his head through the opening and groaned. The hermit was cleaning a pistol, which he dropped in fright as Starr's groan reached his cars. He saw the face in the window, the lips spread in an awful grimace, showing blood stained teeth, and the sunken, discolored cheeks and staring, glazed eyes—a grisly spectre.

The hermit screamed. His hand reached behind him and grasped a rifle, which flew to his shoulder as the apparition strove to speak.

The rifle rang and Starr lay down to rest, as though soothed by the echoes reverberating among the hills.

ONFIRMING the action of the rector and council of the church of All Saints at Cranham, England, Chancellor Ernest Childs has given Dr. Thornwell Jacobs authority to excavate for the body of General James E. Oglethorpe, first governor of Georgia, who was buried in the middle of the chancel of the old church. Dr. Jacobs, who is president of Oglethorpe University, plans to have the bones of Georgia's founder removed to Atlanta for interment there in a special shrine to be erected on the campus of the university. While the excavating is progressing a religious ceremony will be conducted. The distinterment will be conducted with the most profound reverence.