Recollection of the screaming man sinking to the
earthen floor of the hay barn haunted him. He was a
murderer! He had slain a fellow man. He winced and
shuddered, increasing his gait until again he almost ran
--ran from the ghost pursuing him through the black
night in greater terror than he felt for the flesh and
blood pursuers upon his heels.
And Nature drew upon her sinister forces to add to
the fear which the youth already felt. Black clouds ob-
scured the moon blotting out the soft kindliness of the
greening fields and transforming the budding branches
of the trees to menacing and gloomy arms which ap-
peared to hover with clawlike talons above the dark and
forbidding road. The wind soughed with gloomy and in-
creasing menace, a sudden light flared across the south-
ern sky followed by the reverberation of distant thunder.
Presently a great rain drop was blown against the
youth's face; the vividness of the lightning had increased;
the rumbling of the thunder had grown to the propor-
tions of a titanic bombardment; but he dared not pause
to seek shelter.
Another flash of lightning revealed a fork in the road
immediately ahead--to the left ran the broad, smooth
highway, to the right a dirt road, overarched by trees,
led away into the impenetrable dark.
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