me have it."

"No! I'm going to ring it." Violently she tried to break out of his
grip. "I want David back! I'm going to ring the bell!"

She got her hand free. The crystal bell rang in the quiet of the early
morning with an eerie thinness, penetrating the silence like a silver
knife.

"There!" Edith Williams panted. "I've rung it. I know you don't
believe, but I do. It'll bring David back." She raised her voice.
"David!" she called. "David, son! Can you hear me?"

"Edith," Dr. Williams groaned. "You're just tormenting yourself. Come
home. Please come home."

"Not until David has come back.... David, David, can you hear me?" She
rang the bell again, rang it until Dr. Williams seized it, then she
let him take it.

"Edith, Edith," he groaned. "If only you had let me come alone...."

"Mark, listen!"

"What?"

"Listen!" she whispered with fierce urgency.

He was silent. And then fingers of horror drew themselves down his
spine at the clear, youthful voice that came up to them from the
darkness below.

"Mother?... Dad?... Where are you?"

"David!" Edith Williams breathed. "It's David! Let me go! I must go
to him."

"No, Edith!" her husband whispered frantically, as the voice below
called again.

"Dad?... Mother?... Are you up there? Wait for me."

"Let me go!" she sobbed. "David, we're here! We're up here, son!"

"Edith!" Mark Williams gasped. "If you've ever loved me, listen to me.
You mustn't go down there. David--I had to identify him by his class
ring and his wallet. He was burned--terribly burned!"

"I'm going to him!" She wrenched herself free and sped for the steps,
up which now was coming a tall form, a shadow shrouded in the
darkness.

Dr. Williams, horror knotting his stomach, leaped to stop her. But he
slipped and fell headlong on the pavement, so that she was able to
pant down the stairs to meet the upcoming figure.

"Oh, David," she sobbed, "David!"

"Hey, Mom!" The boy held her steady. "I'm sorry. I'm terribly sorry.
But I didn't know what had happened until I got home and you weren't
there and then one of the fellows from the fraternity called me. I
realized they must have made a mistake, and you'd come here, and I
called for a taxi and came out here. My taxi let me off at the
entrance around the block, and I've been looking for you down
there.... Poor Pete!"

"Pete?" she asked.

"Pete Friedburg. He was driving the old car. I lent him the keys and
my driver's license. I shouldn'