The Black Mask — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

The Murder at Lost Creek 89 high-pitched and stabbing like a dagger, I heard a woman’s frightened scream. I opened my eyes and for an instant [ saw the girl, back to me, _ struggling fiercely beside my bed, and heard her crying desperately. “No, no, uncle, you shall not harm him, you shall not—!” “Found us, eh,’ I heard the rumbling bellow of the bull-like voice, ‘‘think he’s . going to steal you for that damned young upstart, eh? A-h-h, we'll see!’ Then he laughed, laughed like the bloodthirsty wind devils outside. Suddenly the girl was flung aside and I saw a towering hulk of a man looming over me, huge, foreboding, like a great pine tree towers over one in the dusk. His face was close to mine, and, after these many years, J can see that face even now ... and shudder as I[ did then! It was a round, evil face, with a black beard that fell almost to the great chest, and with long, shaggy eyebrows. But it was the eyes that Were so terrible, gleaming with the light of the devil. They were the eyes of a madman. He laughed again, then, and | felt his rank, tobacco-laden breath on my face. “So!” he cried, “you came at last, eh? But you shall not go, see!” And as he raised his hand I caught the gleam of the knife. Then J forgot I was weak with rheu- matism, forgot the frost demons that held me down, and with a mighty effort tried to rise. The devils that still lurked in my bones growled, and sank their claws afresh in my vitals, I gave a cry, and fainted even as I saw the reflection of the firelight running up and down the knife blade in glittering streaks. But before I went [I heard a strange thing, heard it dimly as in a dream. It was the girl’s voice, high-strung and poignant, and there was no fear in it, but a gripping something that came from the heart. She was crying out a name, madly, hysterically. “Jean, Jean!’ That, m’siew, was all I heard. Ill WHEN I again came to, I was lying on the bunk, as before, and for a mo- ment I thought I must have been dream- ing, Then I saw the pine fire blazing, and noticed the hearth was piled high with sticks, in the manner of a fire stocked to last a long while, and at the side of my bed a small table held food enough for several meals. I also felt that my face had been freshly treated with grease and bandaged. I moved cautiously and found that the frost devils had loosened their hold on me and J could use my muscles freely. Soon, I knew, I should be well as ever. Then, I missed something. It was the howling of the wind wolves outside, and I knew the storm had finished its mad dance and blown its life away. Then, with a start, I thought of the girl, and the madman, and the glittering knife. I called, but no one answered. Yet I felt there was some presence he- sides myself in that room. I raised myself on my elbow and, ah, I shall-never forget what I saw, or the cold fear that ran down my back like an icy finger as I looked. He lay there on the floor in the center of the cabin, the madman, and his lips were parted, showing his teeth in a hide- ous snarl. And his eyes, ah, m’sieu, the devil had left them, now they were cold and colorless, like the ice on the frozen. rivers. But what fascinated me was the * knife that gleamed—what of it was not buried in his heart, and the blood that was thickened in a little pool at his side, I got one leg out of the bunk, then the other, and staggered to my. feet. For a long while I stared at the horrible thing lying there on the floor, with the hideous eke ett OS all oo “COMMER EONS! com