"What was it?
Did I really see it?
It it couldn't be! It looked--it looked like a--a body that had been cut in half--and--and--" "It's all right," he whispered, reassuringly, passing his arm unchidden about her slight waist.

"Don't be frightened, dear! It wasn't a man cut in half.

It was the upper half of a man who was wiggling down into a tunnel hidden by that smother of underbrush ....

And here I was just wondering why people should bother to come all the way through this path, instead of skirting the woods! Answers furnished while you wait!" Before he spoke, however, he had strained his ears to listen.
And the quick receding and then cessation of the sound of the scrambling body in the tunnel had told him the seen half and the unseen half of the intruder had alike vanished beyond earshot, far under ground.
"But what-- ?" began the frightened girl.
Then she realized for the first time that she was holding fast to the man whom she had forbidden to speak to her.

And she relinquished her tight clasp on his arm.
"Stand where you are, a minute," he directed.