..."
"What do you mean, Smith?"
"Are we"--he glanced about him as though the vastness were peopled
with listening Chinamen--"_followed_?"
Silently we looked into one another's eyes, each seeking for the dread
which neither had named. Then:
"Come on, Petrie!" said Smith, grasping my arm: and at quick march we
were off again.
Cragmire Tower stood upon a very slight eminence, and what had looked
like a green tongue, from the moorland slopes above, was in fact a
creek, flanked by lush land, which here found its way to the sea. The
house which we were come to visit consisted in a low, two-storey
building, joining the ancient tower on the east, with two smaller
out-buildings. There was a miniature kitchen-garden, and a few stunted
fruit trees in the north-west corner; the whole being surrounded by a
grey stone wall.
The shadow of the tower fell sharply across the path, which ran up
almost alongside of it. We were both extremely warm by reason of our
long and rapid walk on that hot day, and this shade should have been
grateful to us. In short, I find it difficult to account for the
unwelcome chill which I experienced at the moment that I found myself
at the foot of the time-worn monument. I know that we both pulled up
sharply and looked at one another as though acted upon by some mutual
disturbance.
But not a sound broke the stillness save the remote murmuring, until a
solitary sea-gull rose in the air and circled directly over the tower,
uttering its mournful and unmusical cry.
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