Bang! Crack! Crash! ‚ÅÝ‚Äîthe door wavered, splintered, and dropped upon the floor.
With a snarl, a crowd of some half-dozen white faces rushed forward, wavered and stopped. The awakened child sat up and stared with wide blue eyes. Slowly, with no word, the intruders turned and went silently away, leaving but one late comer who pressed forward.
‚ÄúWhat damned mummery is this?‚Äù he cried, and snatching at the sheet, dragged it from the black distorted countenance of the corpse. He shuddered but for a moment he could not stir. He felt the midnight eyes of the girl‚ÅÝ‚Äîhe saw the twisted, oozing mouth of the hag, blue-black and hideous.
Suddenly back behind there in the darkness a shriek split the night like a sudden flash of flame‚ÅÝ‚Äîa great ringing scream that cracked and swelled and stopped. With one wild effort the man hurled himself out the door and plunged through the darkness. Panting and cursing, he flashed his huge revolver‚ÅÝ‚Äî bang! bang! bang! it cracked into the night. The sweat poured from his forehead; the terror of the swamp was upon him. With a struggling and tearing in his throat, he tripped and fell fainting under the silent oaks.