The candle-glow that illumined the holy image and shone
out so hopefully against the gloom showed her crouched close
before the altar, her dark head bowed in uttermost dejection.
Outside, and barely revealed, stood the tall, gaunt Bajan woman,
silent, watchful, and forbidding.
With a painful grip at his throat Kirk watched until the girl rose
and hurried away into the shadows. Then he, too, turned and made
his way up the street, but he went slowly, unseeingly, as if he
had beheld a vision.
For the first time in his life he was a prey to fear. A thousand
panics clamored at him, his mind began working with the
exaggerated speed of a person in dire peril. Once more, as upon
that night when he had first called at her father's house, he
turned abruptly at the corner to stare at her window, and again he
surprised a figure skulking after him. Without a moment's
hesitation he made after it at a run, but the fellow dodged into
the Plaza and disappeared among the shrubbery. Not caring to
pursue the chase into those lurking shadows Kirk desisted, certain
only of one thing--that he was not Allan who was trailing him. He
recalled the oft-repeated threats of Ramon Alfarez, and returned
to his quarters by way of the lighted thoroughfares.
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