It was the time of the full moon, and when Auntie Sue at last bade him
good-night, Brian, saying that the evening was too lovely to waste in
sleep, remained on the porch. For an hour, perhaps, he sat there alone;
but his thoughts were not on the beauties of the scene that lay before
him in all its dreamy charm of shadowy hills and moonlit river. He had
no ear for the soft voices of the night. The gentle breeze carried to
him the low, deep-toned roar of the crashing waters at Elbow Rock; but
he did not hear. Moved at last by a feeling of restless longing, and the
certainty that only a sleepless bed awaited him in the house, he left
the porch to stroll along the bank of the river.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE SECRET OF AUNTIE SUE'S LIFE.
Brian Kent, strolling along the bank of the river in the moonlight,
and preoccupied with thoughts that were, at the last, more dreams than
thoughts, was not far from the house when a sound from behind some
near-by bushes broke in upon his reveries. A moment, he listened. Then
telling himself that it was some prowling animal, or perhaps, a bird
that his presence had disturbed, he went on. But he had gone only a few
feet farther when he was conscious of something stealthily following
him. Stepping behind the trunk of a tree, he waited, watching. Then he
saw a form moving toward him through the shadows of the bushes.
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