"That, of course, was a question that neither Long nor myself could answer.
"'If,' I said, 'it hadn't been for this fog! If we could only have seen them better!'
"Of a sudden White exclaimed:
"'Where's Sklokoyum?'
"'Not far,' I told him. 'Say—he was up there, up there where they came from. Come, let's look into this.'
"I sprang up the bank. They followed. A moment, and we were in that very spot where the woman and the thing had stood so brief a space before.
"'It was no dream, at any rate,' observed Long, pointing to the crushed purple flowers—a species, I believe, of aster.
"'No,' I returned; 'it was not a dream.'
"'Maybe,' said White, peering about, 'we'll wish, before this business is ended, that it all had been a dream.'
"Came a loud scream from above. Silence. And then the crash of some heavy body through the branches and shrubs.