Drome/Chapter 8
Chapter 8
"DROME" AGAIN
Scranton produced a clipping from a newspaper.
"This," he told us, "is from today's noon edition of the Herald. The account, you observe, is a short one; but it is my belief that it will prove to have been (at any rate, the precursor of) the most extraordinary piece of news that this paper has ever printed."
lie looked from one to the other of us as if challenging us to doubt it.
"What," asked Rhodes, "is it about?"
"The mysterious death (which the writer would have us believe was not mysterious at all) of Miss Rhoda Dillingham, daughter of the well-known landscape painter, on the Cowlitz Glacier, at the Tamahnowis Rocks, on the afternoon of Wednesday last."
"Mysterious?" queried Milton Rhodes. "I remember reading a short account of the girl's death. There was, however, nothing to indicate that there had been anything at all mysterious about the tragedy. Nor was there any mention of the Tamahnowis Rocks even. It only said that she had been killed, by a fall, on the Cowlitz Glacier."
"But there was something mysterious, Mr. Rhodes, how mysterious no one seems to even dream. For again we have it, that word which White heard the angel speak—that awful word 'Drome'!"
"Drome!" Milton Rhodes exclaimed.
"Yes," said Scranton. "And you will understand the full and fearful meaning of what has just happened there on Rainier when I tell you that knowledge of that mysterious word has always been held an utter secret by the Scrantons. No living man but myself knew it, and yet there it is again!"
"This is becoming interesting indeed!" exclaimed Milton Rhodes.
"I was sure that you would find it so. And now permit me to read to you what the newspaper has to say about this poor girl's death."
He held the clipping up to get a better light upon it and read the following:
"The death of Miss Rhoda Dillingham, daughter of Francis Dillingham, the well-known painter of mountain scenery, on the Cowlitz Glacier on the afternoon of last Wednesday, was, it has now been definitely ascertained, a purely accidental one. Victor Boileau, the veteran Swiss guide, has shown that there is not the slightest foundation for the wild, weird rumors that began to be heard just after the girl's death. Boileau's visit to the Tamahnowis Rocks, the scene of the tragedy, and his careful examination of the place, have proved that the victim came to her death by a fall from the rocks; and so once again tragedy has warned visitors to the Park of the danger of venturing out on the mountain without a guide.
"There was no witness to the tragedy itself. Francis Dillingham, the father of the unfortunate girl, was on another part of the rocks at the time, sketching. On hearing the screams, he rushed to his daughter. He found her lying on the ice at the foot of the rock, and on the point of expiring. She spoke but once, and this was to utter these enigmatic words:
"'Drome!' she said. 'Drome!'
"This is one of those features which gave rise to the stories that something weird and mysterious had occurred at the Tamahnowis Rocks, as if the spot, indeed, was justifying its eery name. Another is that Dillingham declared that he himself, as he made his way over the rocks in answer to his daughter's screams, heard another voice, an unknown voice, and that he distinctly heard that voice pronounce that strange word 'Drome'.
"Victor Boileau, however, has shown that there had been no third person there at the occurrence of the tragedy, that Rhoda Dillingham's death was wholly accidental, that it was caused by a fall, from a height of about thirty feet, down the broken precipitous face of the rocky mass.
"Another feature much stressed by those who see a mystery in everything connected with this tragic accident was the cruel wound in the throat of the victim. The throat, it is said, had every appearance of having been torn by teeth; but it is now known that the wound was made by some sharp, jagged point of rock struck by the girl during her fall.
"It is sincerely to be hoped that this tragic occurrence will add emphasis to the oft-repeated warning that sightseers should not venture forth upon the mountain-without an experienced guide."