At the Eleventh Hour
ing over his face, and Deane's voice whispering:
"It's out there. I hear it. Merritt, if it comes in here I shall go mad!"
And Merritt, startled into quick consciousness, sprang up and peered through the tent-flap into the night, before he realised the foolishness of his action, and the credulity it implied.
"See it?" Deane asked tensely behind him. "If it's there, I'm going out after it. I can't stand the notion of its going around loose any longer. Suppose it came in here …"
And Merritt paused a perceptible instant before replying. Then he said:
"Nothing out there"
And came back and lay down again. But he did not tell Deane that something
179
