The arms went down and came up and reached.
The woman seated herself on the step at his side.
He pointed his hand at the dim figure shifting restlessly in the quiet, shadow-saturated corn field.
"Well--" His voice was hoarse. "It's moving, ain't it? You can see it moving for yourself, can't you? You ain't able to say you don't see it, are you?"
"D'you feel a wind? Say, d'you feel a wind?"
"There ain't no wind. Not now--there ain't! And it's moving, ain't it? Say, it's moving, ain't it?"
"It looks like it was dancing. So it does. Like as if it was--making--itself--dance--"
His eyes were still riveted on those arms that came up and down--; up and down--; and reached.
"It'll stop soon--now." He stuttered it more to himself than to her. "Then--it'll be still. I've watched it mighty often. Mebbe it knows I watch it. Mebbe that's why--it--moves--"
"Well, you see it, don't you? You thought there was something the matter with me when I come and told you how it waves--and waves. But you seen it waving, ain't you?"
"It's nothing, Ben. Look, Benny. It's stopped!"
The two of them stared down the slope at the dim, military figure standing rigid and waist deep in the corn field.
From somewhere in the distance came the harsh, discordant sound of bull frogs croaking. Out in the night a dog bayed at the golden, full moon climbing up over the hills. A bird circled between sky and earth hovering above the corn field. They saw its slow descent, and then for a second they caught the startled whir of its wings, as it flew blindly into the night.
"S'pose--" He whispered. "S'pose when it starts its moving like that;--s'pose some day it walks out of that there corn field! Just naturally walks out here to me. What then, if it walks out?"
"That's what I'm thinking of all the time. If it takes it into its head to just naturally walk out here. What's going to stop it, if it wants to walk out after me; once it starts moving that way? What?"
"Benny--! It couldn't do that! It couldn't!"
"Mebbe it won't. Mebbe it'll just beckon first. Mebbe it won't come after me. Not if I go when it beckons. I kind of figure it'll beckon when it wants me. I couldn't stand the other. I couldn't wait for it to come out here after me. I kind of feel it'll beckon. When it beckons, I'll be going."
