“And Mrs. King?”
“We bury her—gn—near the temple, on holy ground with the rest that have die.”
A stillness followed, then Utterbourne asked:
“What are those lights moving along there through the trees?”
Tsuda replied: “Every night send up offering to the temple for the soul of Wife-of-the-Kami. She fall sick of watching, but now the gods are good to her,” he murmured cryptically.
There was a dead silence. The breathing of all the group was faintly audible.
Jerome, at the first words concerning Stella, had turned very pale. What this talk of a kami was he couldn’t fathom. But he had known with the vividness of lightning that the wife of the Kami meant Stella, and that Stella was dead. He felt dazed. For anything but this he had been prepared. Now he seemed completely cut adrift, and could scarcely think. It seemed a new vortex in his life. Half an hour ago this would have seemed impossible, but now he felt himself carried away by a rush of emotion he could not understand. Married and happy, Stella could never have meant more to him than a troubled dream; dead of unhappiness, she took possession of his heart and wrung it.
IV
“We’ll go on to your house, Tsuda,” said Captain Utterbourne more gently, “and get to the bottom of this business.”
Tsuda nodded and led the way. The Captain turned back with a muttered remark to one of his men: “I had an uneasy feeling there was something wrong here. Places send out strong waves of vibration.”