.

"VOICE FROM THE VOID".
Helplessly we looked at each other.

Then called forth perhaps by what she saw in Drake's eyes, perhaps by another thought, Ruth's cheeks crimsoned, her head drooped; the web of her hair hid the warm rose of her face, the frozen pallor of Ventnor's.
Abruptly, she sprang to her feet.

"Walter! Dick! Something's happening to Martin!" Before she had ceased we were beside her; bending over Ventnor.

His mouth was opening, slowly, slowly--with an effort agonizing to watch.
Then his voice came through lips that scarcely moved; faint, faint as though it floated from infinite distances, a ghost of a voice whispering with phantom breath out of a dead throat.
"Hard--hard! So hard!" the whispering complained.