She turned and saw the boy; as their eyes met he felt the Terror
rushing upon him. He flung a last desperate appeal for help, staring at
her as though his eyes would never let her go, and she, finding him so
unexpectedly, could only gape. In their silent gaze at one another, in
the glassy stare of Mrs. Carter and the trembling, flickering one of
Henry there was more than any ordinary challenge could have conveyed.
Mrs. Carter must have felt at the first immediate confrontation of the
strange little figure that her feet were on the very edge of some most
desperate precipice. The long room and the passages beyond must have
quivered. At that very first moment, with some stir, some hinted
approach, Henry called, with the desperate summoning of all his ghostly
world, upon his gods. They came....
In her eyes he saw suddenly something else than vague terror. He saw
recognition. He felt himself a rushing, heartening comfort; he knew that
his Friend had somehow come, that he was no longer alone.
But Mrs. Carter's eyes were staring beyond him, over him, into the black
passage. Her eyes seemed to grow as though the terror in them was
pushing them out beyond their lids; her breath, came in sharp, tearing
gasps.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185