he made a turn, another familiar landmark appeared.
But there was no sign of Kelly.
Once more he let the boat drift to a stop and cut the engine while he sat and thought.
He knew where she’d gone into the swamp, knew the island the footbridge she’d crossed led to. He’d explored every square foot of it years ago, when he’d first started going into the wilderness by himself. It was a long, narrow, strip of land that barely rose six inches above the water. Only at the near end was it truly solid; as it extended into the swamp, it became boggier and boggier, until at last you were wading.
In the darkness Kelly would have been unable to retrace her steps. Even in the full light of day, it would have been difficult, for Kelly had no familiarity with the area.
So she would have followed her feet, testing the bottom, feeling her way. And since she hadn’t come back to the end of the island at the bridge, she must have stumbled onto the one other spot where the island could be left: a narrow, shallow channel, too shallow for anything but the lightest of boats to navigate, with a second, larger island, on its other side.
Perhaps Kelly was still on that island.
Michael gazed around. The rest of the boats had momentarily disappeared, and he was alone. But at least he knew where to go.
Restarting the engine, he began threading his way through the maze of waterways.
Though Kelly was wandering on foot, Michael was confident he could follow her with his mind. In the swamp there simply weren’t that many paths she could follow.
Unless she made a misstep and stumbled into one of the great patches of quicksand that dotted the area.
Michael refused to think about that possibility.
“Help!” Kelly called out. “Someone, please help me!” Though she shouted at the top of her voice, even to herself the words sounded pitifully weak, seeming to die away into the heavy humid air almost as quickly as she uttered them.
She was tired now, but she kept moving, afraid even to sit down, for the last time she stopped to rest, lowering herself onto the damp earth, she felt something wriggling beneath her and leaped up, yelping with fright. So she kept walking, and finally, off to the right, she saw a faint glow in the sky.
Villejeune!
She quickened her pace, and the light grew steadily brighter.
Her spirits began to rise.
Just a few more minutes and she’d be out, emerging from the tangle of trees and reeds to find the canal, and the village beyond.
And then just as she was certain she was nearly there, the moon rose in the east and all her fears crashed in on her once more.
“Please?” she called out. “Can’t anyone hear me?”
No one answered her plea.
How long had she been walking, and in which direction?
Or had she simply been going in circles?
She didn’t know.
There was a high whining sound in her left ear, cut off as the mosquito settled on her forehead. She raised her right hand, slapping at it, then brushed at another as she felt it pierce the skin of her left hand.
Suddenly they were all around her, seeming to come out of nowhere, and she batted at them in the darkness.
She could feel their pricks everywhere on her skin now, and feel them in her hair, as well.
“No,” she whimpered. “Get away! Leave me alone!” Her arms windmilling as she tried to fend off the attacking insects, she broke into a run. Her foot caught in a root, and she sprawled out, feeling a sharp pain in her ankle. She lay still, waiting for the worst of the pain to pass, then sat up, gingerly pulling her foot free from the root, massaging it with her fingers.
Suddenly she sensed rather than saw a movement in the grass a few feet away. Instinctively freezing, she held her breath as she waited for the movement to repeat itself.
For a long moment nothing happened, and then a snake, weaving back and forth as it rippled over the ground, slid out of the grass and into a patch of moonlight that shone through the tall cypresses. Its head rose up from the ground, its mouth wide open, showing its fangs in the moonlight. From the whiteness inside the mouth, Kelly knew immediately what it was.
A water moccasin, hunting in the darkness.
It had sensed her, and now it was waiting, searching in the moonlight for the slightest movement at which to