ground. With a deep breath as of unconscious terror she let the
burden of the milk cans drop gently from her shoulder to the ground.
In following the bird's flight her eyes had wandered to the side of
the street, to the edge of one of the vacant lots, there where a
shallow ditch separated it from the roadway. An elder-tree, the
great size of which attested its age, hung its berry-laden branches
over the ditch. And in front of this tree the bird had stopped
suddenly, then fluttered off with the quick movement of the wild
creature surprised by fright. What the bird had seen was the same
vision that halted the song on Anna's lips and arrested her foot.
It was the body of a man - a young and well-dressed man, who lay
there with his face turned toward the street. And his face was the
white frozen face of a corpse.

Anna stood still, looking down at him for a few moments, in
wide-eyed terror: then she walked on slowly as if trying to pull
herself together again. A few steps and then she turned and broke
into a run. When she reached the end of the street, breathless
from haste and excitement, she found herself in one of the main
arteries of traffic of the suburb, but owing to the early hour
this street was almost as quiet as the lane she had just left.
Finally the frightened girl's eyes caught sight of the figure of
a policeman coming around the next corner. She flew to meet him
and recognised him as the officer of that beat.

"Why, what is the matter?" he asked. "Why are you so excited?"

"Down there-in the lane, there's a dead man," answered the girl,
gasping for breath.