Page:Weird Tales Volume 8 Number 1 (1926-07).djvu/30

Rh The artist tossed his rumpled brown head impatiently.

“Jove, Bessie, you’re enough to give nerves to a phlegmatie cow! Out in this wilderness people don’t open their doors readily to complete strangers. Why”

He stopped abruptly, for at that moment footsteps sounded within the lodge, the scraping sound came as of heavy bars being moved inside the door, and a moment later the door itself swung slowly open.

Bessie shrank behind her brother, wide hazel eyes on that gradually widening aperture, and a terrified expectancy of she knew not what to emerge from the darkness. Into the doorway stepped a man; erect, robust, dark-haired and dark-eyed; clothed in more or less sophisticated tweeds that proclaimed their made-to-order origin. Right hand cupping a well-shaped Vandyke beard, this man glowered with heavy gaze upon brother and sister, without speaking.

Ewan felt suddenly foolish and small-boyish. He was furiously angry at himself for this susceptibility, as well as at this strange man who had power to impress him so deeply. He tried to he easy and confident in his speech, but spoke stumblingly.

“We are—ah—strangers—about here,” he began.

The dark eyes burned upon him and then turned with no movement of the man’s head to rest steadily on Bessie’s palpably frightened face. A slight softening came into that dark, heavy scrutiny.

“It is plain that you are strangers, or you would not be intruding here,” said the man clearly and distinctly. “Tell me your needs and he on your way,” ungraciously. “This section is not safe after sundown,” he added, in the manner of one who unwillingly gives an explanation.

Bessie shrank behind her brother and twitched at his coat. Ewan jerked away from her in irritation.

“There’s no sense in being rude. Dr. Armitage,” said he, then, getting hold of himself in his resentment at the other man’s inhospitable attitude: “My sister and I are looking for a small log cabin which must he somewhere near by. I thought you could direct us. It is getting night, and”

There was a soft movement behind the man in the doorway, and the susurrus of a woman’s garments caught Bessie’s ear. Staring beyond him, she glimpsed the dimly outlined form of another human being in the dim interior of the room. A woman! But A sudden shiver went over her as she strained to see more clearly. It seemed as if the face of that woman were shimmering with phosphorescence in the darkness; and the eyes were glowing redly as if lighted from within by some fearful evil force. Was it the last light of the sinking sun, reflected from the glowing sky, that caused this—illusion ?

“Ewan! We don’t want to trouble Dr. Armitage,” gasped the girl, all at once trembling sickly with a fear of she knew not what. “Let us go on. A night in the open”

The doctor’s rich voice interrupted her. His burning dark eyes were on her pale, frightened face with a kind of lofty pity.

“You will not have to spend a night in the open,” said he, rather more gently. “The cabin you are looking for is about a quarter of a mile farther upstream. On the other side of the brook, thank God!” he added strangely.

Ewan turned on his heel without further ado, drawing his sister after him.

“We could have found it without troubling our agreeable neighbor,” he jerked out, angrily. “I’m sorry we landed, to meet such boorishness.”

“How long do you intend to stay out here?” suddenly demanded the