She saw his disappointment and his danger, and sprang up to seize his
hand and pull him down beside her.
"Of course you didn't expect me to go," she said, in a voice that no
longer trembled or betrayed excitement. "You didn't want me to be a
coward. My place is with you."
He could make no answer to that, with her beautiful eyes looking at him
as they were, but he felt his heart grow warmer and something rise up
chokingly in his throat.
"Sokwenna is dead, and Rossland lies out there--shot under a flag of
truce," he said. "We can't have many minutes left to us."
He was looking at the square of light where the tunnel from the
cellar-pit opened into the ravine. He had planned to escape through
it--alone--and keep up a fight in the open, but with Mary at his side it
would be a desperate gantlet to run.
"Where are Keok and Nawadlook?" he asked.
"On the tundra, hurrying for the mountains. I told them it was your plan
that I should return to you. When they doubted, I threatened to give
myself up unless they did as I commanded them. And--Alan--the ravine is
filled with the rain-mist, and dark--" She was holding his free hand
closely to her breast.
"It is our one chance," he said.
"And aren't you glad--a little glad--that I didn't run away without
you?"
Even then he saw the sweet and tremulous play of her lips as they smiled
at him in the gloom, and heard the soft note in her voice that was
almost playfully chiding; and the glory of her love as she had proved it
to him there drew from him what he knew to be the truth.
Pages:
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309