been detached
from the principal mass and shivered to pieces in the fall. A few trees,
among which were the black walnut, the slippery elm, and here and there
an oak, grew among the rocks, and attested by their dwarfish stature the
ungrateful soil in which they had taken root. It was not an exhilarating
scene, but it was one that had a peculiar fascination for Miss St.
Denis--a fascination she could not explain, and which she now began to
regret. The darkness had come on very rapidly, and was especially
concentrated, so it seemed to her, round the spot where she sat, and she
could make nothing out of the silent figure on the truck, save that it
had unpleasantly bright eyes and there was something queer about it. She
coughed to see if that would have any effect, and as it had none she
coughed again. Then she spoke and said, "Can you tell me the time,
please?" But there was no reply, and the figure still sat there staring
at her. Then she grew uneasy and, packing up her things, walked out of
the station, trying her best to look as if nothing had occurred. She
glanced over her shoulder; the figure was following her. Quickening her
pace, she assumed a jaunty air and whistled, and turning round again,
saw the strange figure still coming after her. The road would soon be at
its worst stage of loneliness, and, owing to the cliffs on either side
of it, almost pitch dark. Indeed, the spot positively invited murder,
and she might shriek herself hoarse without the remotest chance of
making herself heard. To go on with this _outre_ figure so unmistakably
and persistently stalking her, was out of the question. Screwing up
courage, she swung round, and, raising herself to her full height,
cried: "What do you want? How dare you?"--She got no further, for a
sudden spurt of dying sunlight, playing over the figure, showed her it
was nothing human, nothing she had ever conceived possible. It was a
nude grey thing, not unlike a man in body, but with a wolf's head. As it
sprang forward, its light eyes ablaze with ferocity, she instinctively
felt in her pocket, whipped out a pocket flash-light, and pressed the
button. The effect was magical; the creature shrank back, and putting
two paw-like hands in front of its face to protect its eyes, faded into
nothingness.

She subsequently made inquiries, but could learn nothing beyond the
fact that, in one of the quarries close to the place where the phantasm
had vanished, some curious bones, partly