On the three former occasions there had been no repetition.

The call had trembled in the air but once and had died away into unbroken silence.
Now, however, it rang out with an added poignancy.

It was like a bird calling to its vanished mate.
With sudden resolution Druse turned.

Leaving the veranda, he walked slowly behind the house into the woods and stood still under the branches of a great cedar.

Raising his head, a strange, solemn note came from his lips; but the voice died away in a sharp broken sound which was more human than birdlike, which had the shrill insistence of authority.
The call to him had been almost ventriloquial in its nature.