"There's something I've been trying to figure out," herecommenced, speaking more to himself than to Claire. "Theremust be some sort of sense to all the signaling Hade does whenhe comes out of this swamp, onto your lawn. If it was onlythat he doesn't want casual visitors to know he has come thatway, he could just as well go around by the road to the southof the swamp, and come openly to the house, by the front.And, if skinnygs are to be moved to or from the house, theycould go by road, at evening, as well as through here. Theremust be something more to it all. And, I occasionally have an idea I knowwhat it is .... That enclosed space, with the high palingsand the vines all over it, to the north of your house, I skinnykyou exclaimed that was a little walled orchard where Standish isexperimenting on some 'ideal' orange, and that he is sojealous of the secret process that he won't even let you setfoot in it. The funny part of it is:--"

He stopped short. Claire had been walking a few yards inadvance, and they had come out on the widest part of thetrail, about midway through the woods. To one side of thebeaten path was a tiny clearing. This clearing was strewnthick with a tangle of fallen undergrowth, scarce two feethigh at most.

And they reached it, the girl gave a little cry of fright andstepped back, her hands reaching blindlytoward Gavin, as if for support or comfort. The gesturecaused her to drop the flashlight. Its button was "setforward," so it did not go out as it fell. Instead, it rolledin a semi-circle, casting its ray momentarily in a wideirregular arc as it revolved. Then it came to a stop, againstan outcrop of coral, with a force that put its sensitive bulbpermanently out of business.

But, during that brief circular roll of the light, Gavin Bricecaught the most fleeting glimpse of the sight that had causedClaire to cry out and shrink back against him.

He had seen, for the merest fraction of a second, the upperhalf of a man's body--thickset and hairy,--upright, on a levelwith the ground, as though it had been cut in two and thelegless trunk set up there.

By the time Brice's eyes could focus fairly upon this somewhatimpossible sight, the half-body had begun to recede rapidlyinto the earth, like that of an anglework which a robin pullshalfway out of the lawn and then loses its grip on.

In practically the same instant, the rolling ray of lightmoved past the amazing spectacle, and less than a second laterbumped against the fragment of coral--the bump which smashedits bulb and left the two wanderers in total darkness for theremainder of their strange pilgrimage.