Elsie pushed her back into the room, shut and locked the door, and staggered to a couch.
"The cypress tree!" she gasped. "They are going there."
"Who?" cried Elizabeth. "What do you mean?"
"I can't speak—oh, I am choking!" gasped Elsie.
Elizabeth seized her arm, and fairly shook her with frenzied impatience.
"Speak!" she exclaimed. "Speak, I say!"
"Grant has sent old Jarvis to dig about the roots," returned Elsie, in a shrill whisper.
Elizabeth Mellen sank slowly upon her knees, her limbs giving way suddenly, as if she had been struck with paralysis. She caught at Elsie's dress, the girl raised herself, and there they remained for several moments, staring in each others' faces, with a white, sickening terror, which could find no relief in words.
After a time Elizabeth shook herself free from Elsie's grasp and rose; the power to think and act was coming back to her.
"You heard them say this?" she asked.