Shine thudding by and calling: [Pg 104] “They’re here already! I got some one on the wire and I told him to go like hell.” Miss Pinkney’s voice answered him from the edge of the Point where she stood like a black basalt statue: “Oh, they’re here, all right. Every feller that has a boat’s out. But it’s no use; no one who’s ever got caught in that current’s been found.” Shine muttered an invocation and came to a stop. They all stood speechless staring at the boats—the boats looking for Sybil who half an [Pg 105]hour ago was alive like themselves and now was—where? [Pg 105] As soon as he saw the fleet in operation, Bassett ran to the house. He had to find Flora and get fuller information from her before he called up the police, and not seeing her outside, he supposed she was still there. The great room was almost dark. He felt for one of the standard lamps and pulled the string. The gush of light fell directly over her, close to him, sunk in an armchair, as still as if she, too, had ceased to live. He had expected difficulties in getting a coherent statement from her, but she told him what she had seen, briefly and clearly, as if she had known he was coming and was ready for him. She had skirted the island and come to that part of the path which faced the Point. A hollow intervened, extending to the water’s edge in a mass of shelving rock. Across this hollow she saw Sybil appear on the end of the Point, coming up from the opposite side, and almost immediately heard the shot. Sybil had thrown up her arms, [Pg 106]staggered forward and gone over the bluff. It all happened in a flash and Flora, though describing herself as dazed, had run down the path into the hollow and out on the rocks thinking she could catch her. But she saw the body go swirling by—far out of her reach, caught and borne along in the current. She had watched it, stunned, then had come to her senses and staggered back to the shore—she thought she had fallen more than once—and ran to the house. On the way there she had seen no one and heard nothing. [Pg 106] Bassett left her and went to the library to call up Forestville, the county seat. He knew the place well—a small town on the edge of northern solitudes. It was the starting
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