med to hurt his eyes. It seemed to be hitting his
eyeballs.

He shook his head angrily. _Sleep_ was stinging his eyes. He watched the
trackless road with an intensity of a man hovering between life and
death. Sleep--and death. Trying desperately to avoid both.

One more long hill.

Taking a long chance, he pressed the gas pedal down as far as it would
go. The motor roared, protested and the car leaped ahead like a monster
alive. The speedometer said fifty--then fifty-five. Sixty. At sixty they
hit the sharp incline. Roy Starr was wide awake now, holding tightly to
the door-handle, as though it insured him against an accident. Someone
stirred in the back seat.

"Almost there?" It was a girl's voice, sleepy and disinterested.

"Almost," Earl Robinson said, and twisted the wheel again. The car went
crosswise with the road. It slid forward, up the hill, careened wildly
and straightened its course once more. Robinson sighed.

"Close," he said.

"_Earl, for God's sake, stop!!_"

Roy Starr's voice welled out of him, filled with stark horror. Robinson
saw the weird, shadowy form on the road just in time. He pressed hard on
the brake and the car jerked into the ditch, and stopped with a
sickening jolt.

The girl in the rear seat clawed her way forward, clutching Starr's
shoulder.

"A man on the road," she cried. "Earl, you hit him."

She started sobbing as though her heart were breaking.

"Shut up," Robinson snapped. His nerves had reached the breaking point.
Then, in a gentler voice. "There's a man there all right, Marge. I
didn't hit him. Get hold of yourself. Glenn, Glenn, take care of her,
will you?"

* * * * *

All three people in the rear seat were wide awake now. Glenn Starr,
dark, serious, in full control of his wits, drew the sobbing girl back
beside him.

"Take it easy, kid," he said. "Earl will take care of everything. We
haven't done anything wrong."

The other man, sitting on the far side of the car, pushed the door open
and climbed out.

"Man, this is a storm, and I don't mean perhaps. Nice little ditch we
got ourselves into."

Robinson and Roy Starr got out. Roy pulled his collar up tightly around
his neck. He walked back a few paces and kneeled beside the snow buried
corpse. Earl Robinson, tall, solid, stood over him as he pushed away the
snow.

"Nobody I know," Roy said, and turned away so he wouldn't have to stare
at the dead, frozen face.

Robinson be