The sound was repeated again, and this time it proceeded from a quarter much nearer them. All four listeners held their breath. Presently the Italian made a terrified gesture and pointed frantically to the right bank of the lake.
“I see her!” she cried, “I see her! She is coming towards us!”
The frightened girl made a movement as if she would break away from her companion and flee into the darkness of the trees.
Gladys clasped her firmly in her arms.
“No—no!” she said, “no running off! Remember our agreement! There’s nothing really to be afraid of. I’m not afraid.”
A slight quiver in her voice a little belied the calmness of this statement. She was indeed torn at that moment between a very natural desire to escape herself and an insatiable craving to prolong her companion’s agitation.
In her convulsive terror the Italian, unable to free herself from the elder girl’s enfolding arms, buried her head in the other’s cloak.
Thus linked, the two might have posed for a picture of heroic sisterly solicitude, in the presence of extreme danger.
Once more that ghastly cry resounded through the silence; and several nocturnal birds, from distant portions of the wood, replied to it with their melancholy hootings.
The white-garbed figure of the mad girl, her arms tossed tragically above her head, came swaying towards them. She moved unevenly, and staggered in her advance, as if her volition had not complete power over her movements. Gladys was evidently considerably alarmed herself now. She clutched at a chance of combining escape with triumph.