Page:Weird Tales Volume 10 Number 5 (1927-11).djvu/59

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Lord of the Tarn
633

Hydro orchestra—Miss Coral Deane and Mr. Torkel Yarl; and lastly, Sir Donald Fremling, the world-renowed mystic and savant.

The latter appears to have had a fight of unprecedented horror with a wild cat, which met the party on the summit of the rock.

Sir Donald Fremling was carry¬ ing a dagger (a remarkable occur¬ rence in itself). He killed the beast, but in the death struggle they both rolled off the fell-side, and were dis¬ covered next morning by search- parties, far down the screes in a tangle of bushes. The monster cat wras cold and stiff, but horribly men¬ acing even in death. The handle of the dagger protruded from its body and has been left there at Sir Don¬ ald’s express wish. The latter seemed peculiarly interested in the fact that a joint and claw of the creature’s left foreleg were missing.

Sir Donald Fremling’s leg was broken and he was badly mauled but is recovering rapidly.

The vicar hailed the search party from the summit of the Monk’s Rock, where he had for hours vainly tried to restore Miss Deane to conscious¬ ness. She was carried home and ap¬ pears to be making some progress toward recovery.

No trace has been discovered of the fourth member of the party—Torkel Yarl the cellist. It is feared that in searching for Sir Donald Fremling after his fall from the rock, Yarl himself lost his footing and fell to the unplumbed depths of the gully between Monk’s Rock and Green fell.


The White People

Out of the grass when the dew is wet
Their houses lean and their hoards are set
Deep in the woods that are not yet.

Out of the earth when the night is cold
Their worm-dogs lean and over the wold
They fly with tales that are not told.

Out of the wold when the moon rides low
Their witch-fires flicker, and tapers glow
To guide the goblins to and fro.

Out of the lake when the comets pass
Their maidens rise; and over the grass
They crawl like shadows on a glass.

Out of the East when the stars spin high
They dance and dance and the years go by
And the sun and moon fade out of the sky

And still they dance.