Page:Weird Tales Volume 8 Number 1 (1926-07).djvu/33

32 "Bessie Gillespie," she murmured unwillingly.

"From some remarks dropped the evening you called, I inferred that the amiable inhabitants of Amity Dam had told you my name and disgraceful reputation,: drawled the doctor, his heavy dark eyebrows slightly lifted as if in lofty amusement.

"If you treated them the way you did my brother and myself, I don't wonder that their opinion of you isn't very good," Bessie said.

"I am quite aware, Miss Gillespie, that I did not appear to much advantage that night. Take into consideration, please, that I came out here with my—with Mrs. Armitage—in order to keep severely away from all other human beings." His voice was stern, his face grave. "And then all at once you two appeared, to tell me you would be close neighbors, and the—and it was sunset," he added abruptly.

Bessie's full lips compressed. She did not speak.

"I can see you are still angry with me, Miss Gillespie. I'm sorry. But that is as it may be." He moved one foot uneasily, tracing aimless figures on the sandy path. "I would be glad, nevertheless," said he steadily, without looking at her but watching the movements of his foot, "if you could think more kindly of your neighbor, Miss Gillespie. Believe me, my visit this morning is a reluctant one, but prompted by a motive entirely altruistic."

"All of which is undoubtedly very interesting, Dr. Armitage," the girl retorted coldly, "but I have much to do this morning, and my brother will be returning for his dinner, and"

"And you have no time to waste on a rude, uncouth boor like Dale Armitage!" He laughed hardly. "My misfortune! From your standpoint you are entirely blameless, Miss Gillespie. Still—at the risk of seeming yet more rude and brutal, I must prosecute my errand here, for it is a high duty laid upon me not by my own conscience but by the dictates of a yet loftier duty toward not only you and your brother, but all mankind."

Bessie shrank within her window, and cast a fleeting glance toward the cabin door. Thank goodness, Ewan had closed it when he went out. If this strangely talking man made a single suspicious move, she would pull down the window, and run to throw the fastening bar against the cabin door. And then she would hunt for Ewan's police whistle. Her heart beat quickly with agitation, and yet she could not exactly persuade herself that the doctor was not kindly in his intentions, for his piercing dark eyes were bent upon her under their heavy brows with an expression that was quite gentle. Indeed, she thought it almost pitying, which was surely odder yet.

"I came here this morning to talk with you, because you are a woman. A woman's intuitions are finer than a man's. You ought to feel that I am in earnest when I tell you what I have come to say. For it is within your power to persuade your brother to leave this accursed spot at once, never to return," he finished solemnly.

Bessie's breath came faster. She kept her eyes upon the doctor's face, and again its expression struck her as being pitying to a degree that weighed her down strangely, yet made her sense his sincerity with acute perception.

"I want to warn you that if you and your brother remain here, yon are doing so at the risk of a peril to yourselves of so frightful a nature that it would be impossible for me to lay sufficient stress upon its horror. Miss Gillespie, this locality is not healthful for a handsome young man.