She lay there panting. She pulled the sheets up across her face; her shaking fingers working the tops of them into a hard ball. She stuffed it between her chattering teeth.
Whatever happened, Benny mustn't hear her. She mustn't waken, Benny. Thank Heaven, Benny was asleep. Benny must never know how, out there in the whitened night, the hands of the figure slowly and unceasingly beckoned and beckoned.
The sight of those reaching arms stayed before her. When, hours later, she fell asleep, she still saw the slow-moving, motioning hands.
"Benny--" She called again. "Get on up. It's late, Benny!"
She half dressed herself and went into his room.
The bed had been slept in. She saw that at a glance. His clothes were not there. Down--in--the--field--because--she'd--forgotten--to--wake--him--.
In a sudden stunning flash she remembered the crash she had heard.
It took her a long while to get to the little closet behind the bed. Before she opened it she knew it would be empty.
He had seen those two reaching arms! He had seen those two hands that had slowly, very slowly, beckoned!
Her eyes staring straight before her, down the slope in front of the house, caught sight of something blue and antiquatedly military standing waist deep and rigid in the corn field.
"You ole scarecrow--!" She whimpered. "Why're you standing there?" She sobbed. "What're you standing still for--_now_?"
He was tremendously disappointed. The house was empty. He had thought it looked uninhabited from the outside. It made him a bit dreary to have his people away like this. That uncertain feeling came over him again. The uncertain feeling never quite left him of late. He was conscious of it most of the time. It formed an intangible background to all his other thought.
He decided he would go down to the lodge presently. He was certain to find Bennet at the lodge. And Bennet's wife; and Bennet's three children. He grinned as he thought of Bennet chasing his children out of his gardens. He could imagine the old gardener's gladness at his homecoming.
Going quickly up the last flight of stairs, he could see that the door of his room stood ajar. He wondered at the yellow glow of light trickling in a long narrow stream out into the dark of the hall.