Ruby Noakes and old Joey
attended to a few of the many preparations that were being hurried
through with such nervous haste.
All through the long afternoon Mary Braddock lived under the most
intense strain of suspense and apprehension. Uppermost in her mind was
the question: had he succeeded in eluding the watchers who were on his
trail?
At four o'clock she went to her father, prepared to tell him all that
had transpired during the past thirty-six hours. She held nothing back
from the old man, not even Braddock's gruesome design. They were
closeted together for more than an hour. That which passed between
father and daughter went no farther than the walls of the secluded
little room that he called his study. She came forth from the trying
interview with her head high and her heart low.
The old man's last tremulous words to her were these: "Well, Mary, God
shows all of us the way. Sometimes the way is hard, but we reach the
end if we look neither to the right nor the left,--nor behind. What
you have just told me is terrible. Is it the only way?"
"Yes, it is the only way."
He bowed his head and said no more.
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