Page:Weird Tales volume 24 number 03.djvu/73

344 "Maybe, maybe not," he said. "I ain't been vorking wery long. I t'ink maybe vind blow him back."

He picked up the creeper he had just slashed and threw it hastily into the woods, delivering a kick at one heavy, dragging end of it. Then he wiped his sap-stained hands on his coveralls and looked at Schommer shyly.

"Should I move him?" he asked, pointing to the grader.

"Later," said Schommer. "We've got a little job for you in the woods. Bring along your spade."

Eric unhooked the spade from the grader and looked at it perplexed as he followed Schommer and Haverland through the brush. In a moment the three men arrived at a spot where the ground was broadly disturbed.

"This is it," said Schommer.

"Minus the dog," said Haverland, staring at his companion. He was suddenly filled with a great wrath, and a hatred enough to drive out any fear of the unknown. The great creeper that had been lying on the ground at the base of the cottonwood now mounted upward and was lost among the foliage of the tree. There was no trace of the dog.

Both Schommer and Haverland advanced to the base of the vine and looked about.

"X marks the spot," said Schommer grimly. He scraped a cross into the ground with one foot, where lay a loose scattering of splintered bones. "Marrow and all," he continued. "Nothing left but splinters."

It was uncommonly dark in the woods, for today there was no sun. Eric looked all around carefully, then planted his shovel firmly in the soft earth. He eyed the two engineers earnestly and rather uneasily as they examined the creeper wound all about the cottonwood.

"The devil! That's a big fellow, Charlie," said Schommer. "That surely can't be the one we saw lying on the ground last night."

Haverland shrugged. The vine was thick as a small tree, but it was as gnarled and twisted as though it had been through torture.

"You know," he said, "this is all kind of backward. I've seen wind tear a vine free, but blowing it back up is a horse of another color."

"I don' like it," said Eric. The air was charged with a musty, pungent animal smell, at which he wrinkled his nose with dislike. "I t'ink maybe I better go now."

"O. K., Eric," said Schommer. "We don't need you after all."

As he turned around, and Haverland stooped to examine the bark of the vine, there was a rustle in the foliage overhead that was not caused by any wind. It was the sound of innumerable bats in flight, the sound of leather in motion. Eric jumped up and down with excitement, his jaws moving soundlessly as he pointed. Schommer stared at him, marveling.

"Watch himself! Watch himself!" shouted the Finn, finding his voice. "Wine come!"

Schommer glanced up, then snatched at Haverland and hurled himself forward. The two men sprawled headlong as the "wine" slipped from the tree and fell behind them. The leaves of the vine were massed like, a great green mushroom, and the whole growth fell limply and heavily, all at once, smothering the base of the cottonwood with a thud, in a solid mound of foliage.

"Well, I will be damned!" said Schommer, finding his feet and brushing himself off. "Now, what do you suppose made that happen?"

"It fell," said Haverland slowly, as if to himself. "Simply came loose and fell