redale's house
stood. It gleamed luridly, almost red, in its depth of yellow. Hervey
held his breath, so deep was his excitement and the feeling of
anticipation.

The sudden appearance of the light was the signal for further
demonstration. The prolonged screech of an owl replied to it. The
screech, so shrill and ear-piercing, gave the watcher such a
nerve-racking moment as to almost urge him to beat a hasty retreat.
But the cry died away, and, as the echoes grew fainter and eventually
became silent, he recovered himself. A moment passed and another cry
split the air, only this time it came from across the valley on the
opposite heights. Hervey stood with ears straining. He had detected
something curious in the sound of those cries. Then as the second died
away a single word muttered below his breath voiced his discovery.

"Human!" he said to himself, and a feeling of unholy joy swept over
him, and he drew a pistol from his pocket and his hand gripped its
butt significantly.

His eyes were still turned in the direction of the house where the
light was burning when a scraping noise suddenly drew his attention
to the graveyard before him. The scraping continued, and sounded like
the grinding of an axe upon a whetstone. It distinctly came from
one of the graves, and, for a moment, he experienced a shudder of
superstitious fear. The next moment he suppressed a chuckle as he
realized that the sound came from the grave at the side of which Neche
had made such a demonstration that morning. He gazed in the direction,
his great eyes burning with the lurid fires of pent-up excitement and
speculation. What was the secret he was about to learn? He longed
to draw closer to the spot, but he knew that he dared not move.

Suddenly a vague shadow loomed up from amongst the grass which grew so
rankly in the cemetery. Up, up it rose, black even against the
background of utter darkness in which the forest was bathed. Hervey
leaned forward, his eyes straining and every nerve tense-drawn. What
was this--thing?

The shadow paused. Then it rose higher. It seemed to suddenly
straighten up, and Hervey permitted a deep breath to escape him. The
black figure had assumed the shape of a man, and the form moved
forward towards the log dead-house. Then the waiting man saw that
other figures were following the first in rapid succession. Each
figure was bearing its burden. Some seemed to be carrying bundles,
some carried that which appeared to be