"Victor Boileau, however, has shown that there had been no third person there at the occurrence of the tragedy, that Rhoda Dillingham's death was wholly accidental, that it was caused by a fall, from a height of about thirty feet, down the broken and precipitous face of the rocky mass. "Another feature much stressed by those who see a mystery in everything connected with this tragic accident was the cruel wound in the throat of the victim. The throat, it is said, had every appearance of having been torn by teeth; but it is now known that the wound was made by some sharp, jagged point of rock, struck by the girl during her fall." Chapter 9 "TO MY DYING HOUR" Scranton folded the clipping and placed it between leaves of the journal. "There!" he said. "My story is ended. You have all the principal facts now. Additional details may be found in this old record--if you are interested in the case and care to peruse it." Milton Rhodes reached forth a hand for the battered old journal. "I am indeed interested," he said. "And I wish to thank you again, Mr. Scranton, for bringing to me a problem that promises to be one of extraordinary scientific interest." "I suppose that you will visit the mountain, the Tamahnowis Rocks, as soon as possible." Milton Rhodes nodded. "It will take some time, some hours, that is, to make the necessary preparations; for this journey, I fancy, is going to prove a very strange one and perhaps a very terrible one, too. But tomorrow evening, I trust, will find us at Paradise. If so, on the following morning, we will be at the Tamahnowis Rocks." "We?" queried Scranton. "Yes; my friend Carter here is going along. Indeed, without Bill at my side, I don't know that I would care to face this thing." "Me?" I exclaimed. "Where did you get that? I didn't say that I was going." "That is true, Bill," Milton laughed; "you didn't say that you were going." A silence ensued, during which Scranton sat in deep thought, as, indeed, did Milton Rhodes and myself. What did it all mean? Oh, what was I to make of this wild, this fantastic, this fearful thing? "There is no necessity," Scranton said suddenly, "for the warning, I know; and yet I can't help pointing out that this adventure that you are about to enter upon may prove a very dangerous, even a very horrible one." "Yes," Rhodes nodded; "it may prove a very dangerous, a very horrible adventure indeed." "Why," I exclaimed, "all this cabalistic lingo and all this mystery? Why not be explicit? There is only one place that the angel could possibly have come from, this wonderful and terrible creature that says Drome and has a demon for her companion." "Yes, Bill," Milton nodded; "here is only one place. And it was from that very place that she and her demon came." "Good Heaven! Why, that supposition is absurd. The thing's preposterous."