“Oh, come and help find him! That’s Gary—I know it’s Gary!” Then she turned and went on climbing recklessly over the treacherous, piled rocks.
“Come on back!” Monty shouted again peremptorily. “It’s the Voice! It ain’t human!”
But Patricia would not listen, would not stop. She went on climbing, bareheaded, her breath coming in gasps from the altitude and the pace she was trying to keep.
Monty looked after her, shouted again. And when he saw that nothing would stop her, he turned back, running to the cabin. There he searched frantically for a canteen, found none and filled an empty beer bottle with water, sliding it into his pocket. Then, with Patricia’s sailor hat in one hand, he started after her.
When Patricia was forced to stop and get her breath, the spotted cat appeared suddenly from somewhere among the rocks. She looked up into Patricia’s face and meowed wistfully.
“Oh, cat, you led me once to-day—and Gary likes you. He called you Faith. Oh, Faith, where’s Gary? He is up on the bluff, isn’t he? I believe you know! Come on, Faith—help me find Gary!”
“Meow-w?” Faith inquired in her own way and hopped upon the bowlder a few feet above Patricia. Patricia, with a hysterical little laugh, followed her.
From farther down the bluff Monty shouted, climbing with long steps. Patricia looked back, climbed another rock and stopped to call down to him.
“I’m following the cat!” she cried. “Faith is leading me to Gary!” Then she went on.
Fifty yards below her Monty swore to himself. Insanity was leading her, in Monty’s opinion; he wished fervently that he had left her in town. But since she was here, and crazily climbing the bluff at the mocking behest of that phantom Voice, Monty would have to follow and look after her.