The Everlasting Whisper

Gloria whirled again, this time toward the dark into which Gratton had gone. Blindly she hurried after him; she stumbled but kept on. She could hear him at work, hiding his gold. At last she was at his side; she clutched at his sleeve.

"Listen!" she whispered. "They are outside. They have followed you!"

She felt his arm stiffen as from head to foot he grew rigid. She heard his breath whistling through his nostrils. She could hear the beating of his heart--or was it her own? The voices came nearer, rose higher. Gratton began to shake as with a terrible chill.

"If they find me--oh, my God, if they find me--Benny killed a man he thought had the bacon--I had it all the time! My God, Gloria, if they find me----"

"Sh!" she commanded. "Be still! Maybe they will go by----"

The voices came nearer--passed on. Two or three men out there were speaking at once; then all were silent. The silence lasted so long that Gloria began to breathe again. Surely, surely Brodie and his men had gone---Then again came Brodie's deep, sinister voice: "Back this way, boys," he shouted. "He's gone in here. We've trapped the dirty white rat."

Gloria and Gratton clung to each other, too terrified to move.