They climbed the bluff. When they reached the top the world was white and impalpable about them.
Cecil drew Lee’s hand through his arm. “Never mind,” he said, “I think I have a good bump of locality, and one can see a little way ahead.”
Lee leaned heavily on his arm. “I can’t think why I feel so sleepy,” she murmured. “I never am at this time of day.”
“Oh, for mercy’s sake don’t go to sleep. Let’s run.”
They ran headlong until they were out of breath. Then they stopped and gazed into the fog ahead of them. Tall dark objects loomed there. They seemed to touch the unseen stars, and they were black even in that gracious mist.
“They’re trees. They’re redwoods,” said Cecil. “I know where we are now—at least I think I do. Father and I came over to this side one day and drove about. It’s a regular forest. I do hope——” He glanced uneasily about. “It’s too bad we can’t walk along the edge of the cliffs. But if we keep straight ahead I suppose it’ll be all right.”
They trudged on. The forest closed about them. Those dark rigid shafts that no storm ever bends, no earthquake ever sways, whom the fog feeds and the trade winds love, looked like the phantasm of themselves in the pale hereafter. The scented underbush and infant redwoods grew high above the heads of the children, and there were a hundred paths. The roar of the sea grew faint.
Lee gave a gasping yawn and staggered. “Oh, Cecil,” she whispered, “I’m asleep. I can’t go another step.”
Cecil was also weary, and very much discouraged. He sat down against a tree and took Lee in his arms. She was asleep in a moment, her head comfortably nestled into his shoulder.
He was a brave boy, but during the two hours that Lee slept his nerves were sorely tried. High up, in the unseen arbours of the redwoods, there was a faint incessant whisper: the sibilant tongues of moisture among the brittle leaves. From an immeasurable distance came the long, low, incessant moan of the Farallones’ “syren.” There was no other sound. If there were four-footed creatures in the forest they slept. Just as Cecil’s teeth began to chatter, whether from cold or fear he did not care to scan, Lee moved.