Imagination sprang ahead of the moment and pictured our final
struggles. We fought with the nightmares that entered our minds, and
conversation languished. We couldn't speak while the mental canvases
were being rapidly coloured with scenes depicting our end in the
darkness and the silence, where a grim fate would even deny one a last
look at a dearly loved face. A silence came upon us that had the same
effect as intense cold. Each in his own frozen husk of despair plodded
forward with the idea that the others were so engrossed in their own
thoughts that they were not inclined to answer when addressed. The
darkness so completely isolated each person that after some hours of
silence it required a tremendous effort to thoroughly convince the mind
that one was walking with living people and not with phantoms.
It was after one of these intervals of silence that Barbara Herndon made
a discovery that chilled our blood. She made some commonplace remark to
her sister and received no reply. She repeated the observation, but it
brought no comment. The happening seemed to drag the rest of us from the
strange torpor, and we stopped.
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