But why do you look so alarmed?'
'Oh, don't go into the old church to-night,' said Winifred.
I stood and looked at her, puzzled and strangely disturbed.
'Henry,' said she, 'I know you will think me very foolish, but I have
not yet got over the fright that shriek gave me, the shriek we both
heard the moment before the landslip. That shriek was not a noise
made by the rending of trees, Henry. No, no; we both know better than
that, Henry.'
I gave a start; for, try as I would, I had not really succeeded in
persuading myself that what I had heard was anything but a human
voice in terror or in pain.
'What do you think the noise was, then?' said I.
'I don't know; but I know what I felt as it came shuddering along the
sand, and then went wailing over the sea.'
'What did you feel, Winnie?'
'My heart stood still, for it seemed to me to be the call from the
grave.'
'The call from the grave! and pray what is that? I feel how sadly my
education has been neglected.'
'Don't scoff, Henry. It is said that when the fate of an old family
is at stake, there will sometimes come to him who represents it a
call from the grave, and when I saw Snap standing stock still, his
hair bristling with terror, I knew that it was no earthly shriek.
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