Dr. Stanley Colton,” he said. “What is it you want me for?” 

 “I wish the testimony of your younger eyes and ears,” said the other. “Would you object to a walk of a third of a mile?” 

 “Not at all,” returned the other, becoming interested. “Shall I see if I can rustle up a lantern?” 

 “No,” said the professor thoughtfully. “I think it would be better not. Yes; decidedly we are better without a light. Come.” 

 He led the way, swiftly and sure-footedly, though it was pitch-dark except when the lightning lent its swift radiance. 

 “I was out in search of a rare species of Catocala—a moth of this locality—when I heard the—the curious sound to which I hope to call your attention,” he paused to explain. 

 He hurried on in silence, Colton following in puzzled expectation. At the top of a mound they stopped, and were almost swept off their feet by a furious gust of wind which died down, only to be succeeded by a second, hardly less violent. In a glare of lightning that spread across the south, Colton saw the fretted waters of a little lake below them. 

 “We’re going to get that storm, I think,” he said. 

 No reply came from his companion. In silence they stood, for perhaps ten or fifteen minutes. Then the wind dropped temporarily. Colton was wondering whether courtesy to the peculiar individual who had haled him forth on this errand of darkness was going to cost him a wetting, when the wind dropped and the night fell silent. 

 “There! Did you hear it?” the professor exclaimed suddenly. 

 Colton had heard, and now he heard again, a strange sound, from overhead and seeming to come from a considerable distance; faintly harsh, and strident, with a metallic sonance. 

 “Almost overhead and to the west, was it not?” pursued the other. “Watch there for the lightning flash.” 

 The lightning came, in one of those broad, sheetlike flickers that seem to irradiate the world for countable seconds. Professor Ravenden’s arm shot out. 

 “Did you see?” he cried. 

 Darkness fell as the query was completed. “I saw nothing,” replied Colton. “Did you? What did you see?” 

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