THE HERON 
shriek and bleed ? It was a very fine and 
honourable thing to kill a devil, but for all 
that he lay in a cold sweat. For the first time 
in his life the quiet of the woods was awful, 
and he feared to move lest something should 
clutch him from behind. 
How long he lay like this dallying with the 
consummation of his wish under his finger, as 
it were, he did not know ; but the heron had 
settled down to his fishing reassured when above 
the continual murmur of the frogs in the pool, 
sounded the distant throb of a motor-car. The 
Corr iasc did not hear it at first, but the man 
gritted his teeth together. The road wound 
away across pasture land, and suddenly against 
the darker mass of a beech wood beyond twin 
lights swung into view. Blinking stupidly, 
Andy watched them rush towards him down 
the slope. 
He forgot all about the heron. He put up the 
gun and took aim between the blazing head- 
lights. He never paused to ask himself whether 
he were sure who drove the car. He knew. 
He suddenly felt quite sober and collected. 
The lamps of the great Mercedes threw an arc 
of light far ahead. The Corr iasc saw the 
sudden glare and swung up from the pool, but 
Andy unflinching watched them rush towards 
him. They were fifty yards away . . . thirty 
243 
