Nothing
had happened that he could see. He gave a great gasp of relief, and in
his joy he laughed. The strangeness of the laugh told him more than
anything else the tension he had been under.
Another half-hour, and he came up out of the dip behind Sokwenna's
cabin and tried the door. It was locked. A voice answered his knock, and
he called out his name. The bolt shot back, the door opened, and he
stepped in. Nawadlook stood at her bedroom door, a gun in her hands.
Keok faced him, holding grimly to a long knife, and between them,
staring white-faced at him as he entered, was Mary Standish. She came
forward to meet him, and he heard a whisper from Nawadlook, and saw Keok
follow her swiftly through the door into the other room.
Mary Standish held out her hands to him a little blindly, and the
tremble in her throat and the look in her eyes betrayed the struggle she
was making to keep from breaking down and crying out in gladness at his
coming. It was that look that sent a flood of joy into his heart, even
when he saw the torture and hopelessness behind it. He held her hands
close, and into her eyes he smiled in such a way that he saw them widen,
as if she almost disbelieved; and then she drew in a sudden quick
breath, and her fingers clung to him. It was as if the hope that had
deserted her came in an instant into her face again.
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