orm of life
and energy, the body of passion and desire.

By another of those swift, incalculable processes which at this stage of
my apprenticeship I failed often to grasp, Dr. Silence reclosed the
circle about the tent and body.

"Now it cannot return till I permit it," he said, and the next second
was off at full speed into the woods, with myself close behind him. I
had already had some experience of my companion's ability to run swiftly
through a dense wood, and I now had the further proof of his power
almost to see in the dark. For, once we left the open space about the
tents, the trees seemed to absorb all the remaining vestiges of light,
and I understood that special sensibility that is said to develop in the
blind--the sense of obstacles.

And twice as we ran we heard the sound of that dismal howling drawing
nearer and nearer to the answering faint cry from the point of the
island whither we were going.

Then, suddenly, the trees fell away, and we emerged, hot and breathless,
upon the rocky point where the granite slabs ran bare into the sea. It
was like passing into the clearness of open day. And there, sharply
defined against sea and sky, stood the figure of a human being. It was
Joan.

I at once saw that there was something about her appearance that was
singular and unusual, but it was only when we had moved quite close that
I recognised what caused it. For while the lips wore a smile that lit
the whole face with a happiness I had never seen there before, the eyes
themselves were fixed in a steady, sightless stare as though they were
lifeless and made of glass.

I made an impulsive forward movement, but Dr. Silence instantly dragged
me back.

"No," he cried, "don't wake her!"

"What do you mean?" I replied aloud, struggling in his grasp.

"She's asleep. It's somnambulistic. The shock might injure her
permanently."

I turned and peered closely into his face. He was absolutely calm. I
began to understand a little more, catching, I suppose, something of his
strong thinking.

"Walking in her sleep, you mean?"

He nodded. "She's on her way to meet him. From the very beginning he
must have drawn her--irresistibly."

"But the torn tent and the wounded flesh?"

"When she did not sleep deep enough to enter the somnambulistic trance
he missed her--he went instinctively and in all innocence to seek her
out--with the result, of course, that she woke and was terrified--"

"Then in their heart of hearts