As soon as I was out I noticed at once another figure moving silently along the shore. It was Hank Milligan, and it was plain enough what he was doing: he was examining the holes that had been cut in the upper ribs of the canoe. He looked half ashamed when I came up with him, and mumbled something about not being able to sleep for the cold. But, there, standing together beside the over-turned canoe, we both saw that the holes were far too small for a man's hand and arm and could not possibly have been cut by two men hanging on for their lives in deep water. Those holes had been made afterwards. Hank said nothing to me and I said nothing to Hank, and presently he moved off to collect logs for the fire, which needed replenishing, for it was a piercingly cold night and there were many degrees of frost. Three days later Hank and Silver Fizz followed with stumbling footsteps the old Indian trail that leads from Beaver Creek to the southwards. A hammock was slung between them, and it weighed heavily. Yet neither of the men complained; and, indeed, speech between them was almost nothing. Their thoughts, however, were exceedingly busy, and the terrible secret of the woods which formed their burden weighed far more heavily than the uncouth, shifting mass that lay in the swinging hammock and tugged so severely at their shoulders. They had found "it" in four feet of water not more than a couple of yards from the lee shore of the island. And in the back of the head was a long, terrible wound which no man could possibly have inflicted upon himself. _Printed by MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, Edinburgh._ John Silence by Algernon Blackwood "Not since the days of Poe have we read anything in his peculiar genre fit to be compared with this remarkable book. . . . He brings to his work an extraordinary knowledge of strange and unusual forms of spiritualistic phenomena, and steeps his pages in an atmosphere of real terror and expectancy."--_Observer_. "When one says that Mr. Blackwood's work approaches genius, the phrase is used in no light connection. This very remarkable book is a considerable and lasting addition to the literature of our time."--_Morning Post_. "These are the most haunting and original ghost stories since 'Uncle Silas' appeared."--_Morning Leader_. "In the field which he has chosen, Mr. Blackwood stands without rival among contemporary writers."--_Manchester Guardian_. "As original, as powerful, and as artistically written as that little masterpiece of Lytton's, 'The Haunters and the Haunted.' He bears favourable comparison with Le Fanu. . . . A volume which has an extraordinary power of fascination."--_Birmingham Daily Post_. "The story is absolutely arresting in its imaginative power."--_Daily Telegraph_. UNIFORM EDITION 3s. 6d. net EVELEIGH NASH COMPANY LIMITED 36 King Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. The Lost Valley by Algernon Blackwood