“I—I thought I heard something. It sounded like the very soul being drawn from some woman. U-ugh! It makes me shiver to think of it.”
“Well, there aren’t any women nearer than thirty miles, except you, so it couldn’t be that.”
“But some one might be carrying a woman off or murdering her. Just because Amy Hawks is the nearest one we know of, doesn’t make it so there mightn’t be some poor creature being killed.”
To this, the man made no response, and together they listened intently for a repetition of the awful wail.
“Guess it must have been some coyote got kicked while he was smelling round the cattle. This is the fi——”
But the words literally stuck in Bowser’s mouth.
Again the shriek, bloodcurdling in its gruesomeness, rang out ere he could finish what he purposed to say.
This time there was no mistaking the cry.
It seemed to come from a woman in awful distress and to be close at hand.
“There’s some mischief afoot!” exclaimed the man, as, heedless of his wife’s protests, he leaped from his bed, seized his rifle and rushed to the door.