All Story Magazine, December 1913 — page 132: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

842 held her close up against him and kissed her wan face. The caresses unverved the girl. “T am hungry—oh! so hungry, Ni- kxolai,’’ she whimpered. “And so am I, dear heart,’’ answered he, “ but I have only this. Drink some. It will sustain you until we can get to Utskow in the morning.” She opened her lips obediently as he tilted the flask up against them, and she coughed until the tears stood in her eyes as the vodka scorched her throat. She did not like the taste of it, but the burning warmth that almost immediately swept through her veins was welcome and made her more her old self. “Let me rest a bit,” she sighed, drooping against his shoulder. “ Just a little while, lover, and then we shall go on again.” Count Nikolai spread his cloak out on the grass and sat cross-legged with Vera curled up in front of him, her head in his lap and one arm encircling his waist. She heaved a great sigh of weariness. Away up above stars were beginning to twinkle frostily in the sky. The tree-trunks were gray and ghostly, bearded with moss, and reverberant with the good night chirps of little birds. Somewhere off in the depths of the forest an ow! hooted in melancholy fashion, The girl’s lids dropped and she let her body relax. Presently she slept. IV. Wuat it was that finally awakened her she could not tell. Her eyes flashed open with sleep scared out of them; her every sense was keenly alert. She felt as if some terrible thing were skulking just out of arm’s reach there in the blackness, ready to pounce down upon her. Yet there was no sound nor sign to confirm her apprehension. Count Nikolai’s chin had dropped to his chest and he also drowsed. The THE ALL-STORY MAGAZINE. night dew had dampened his hair until it hung down over his forehead, giving him a wild and haggard look. The horses were still browsing a few yards away. Vera listened intently, her very breath suspended. No sound, ‘The vast silence of the forest seemed palpable almost. ‘The girl had to choke back a hysterical impulse to scream at the top of her lungs. It was there—there! She knew it was! She could not hear it, nor see it —could not tell what it was—but she was sense-conscious of a lurking menace close to her. “Nikolai! Nikolai, hissed, gripping the sleeping man frantically by the arms. ‘ Awake! I am afraid! There is something here! ” The nobleman was startled into sud- den consciousness, and his awakening ejaculation was barely smothered by the girl’s hand on his lips. ‘Then cau- tion came to him. His hand slipped into his coat-pocket and emerged again grasping his pistol. “What is it, Vera?” he whispered uneasily. “What have you seen? What frightened you? ’’ “T don’t know, but it is here—over there—all around us in the shadows of the trees!” she gasped, making a brave effort to retain self-control. ‘It is nothing that I have actually seen or heard, but I can feel it—seem to sense red eyes staring at us.” Count Nikolai’s fingers tightened round the pistol-butt, and his eyes nar- rowed as he strove in vain to pierce the gloom which surrounded the open place in which they sat. Inch by inch he drew his feet up under him until he could push the girl aside and spring up, with leveled weapon, shouting: “Come out from befind those trees, -— you dogs! Stand forth, or I fire!” The dismal echoes were his only response. Vera had risen, too, with her legs shaking under her. ““T am so afraid, lover,” she shud- dered, clinging to him. “Let us go away from here quickly. Let us get lover!’’ she comicloooks.com