But she was not ill, he was certain of that. During the two weeks
there were only two days when the air cleared enough for him to see the
Leland house. The first came when he had been in hiding three days;
the other two days later. Both times Wanda had come out upon the porch
where with the spy-glass in the cave he could see her plainly. She had
signalled him, using the first few signals of that code they had made
together so merrily. She lifted both hands up to her face and he knew
that her heart was repeating his words, "I love you, dear, with my
whole heart." She loitered on the porch in apparent carelessness, but
as eager as the man watching her, yearning for her, she had lifted her
hood lightly from her head, flashing the message across the miles: "Be
careful. We are being watched." She turned her back and stood for a
long time looking in at the open living room door: "Something has
happened to prevent our meeting to-day."
Several times during the two clear days she repeated her signals. But
for more than a week afterward he had no sight of her. He did not
know, he could only guess vaguely at the truth. One of MacKelvey's men
had come back to the Echo Creek, unexpected by Wanda and Mrs. Leland,
and while he was apparently concerned only in making frequent trips
toward the Bar L-M, Wanda had the uneasy feeling that she was never
long out of his sight.
But at length Wanda risked coming to him, choosing a time when the
danger was least. Johnson, the deputy sheriff, had said in the morning
that he was going to take a run over to the Bar L-M, to look things
over. It was by no means the first time he had said this, and the girl
felt that he had no particular reason to suspect her to-day. It was
still snowing, not too heavily for one to venture out, but steadily
enough to obliterate ski tracks entirely in less than an hour. Johnson
left the house, and a little later Wanda set forth, her preparations
swiftly made. Johnson was out of sight. She drove on swiftly to a
hilltop due east of the house from which she would be able to see him
before he came to the bridge.
She waited anxiously there until she saw him, pushing steadily onward.
One sharp glance at the way she had come showed her that unless Johnson
returned very much faster than he had gone out there would be no sign
to tell him where she had gone. And then, her eyes suddenly brighter
than they had been for many a day, she hastened on, still eastward, not
daring even now to turn directly toward the cliffs until she had passed
into the deeper forest.
It was like bringing new life to Wayne Shandon. He swept the girl up
hungrily into his arms, crying out softly as she came through the snow
blocked entrance to the cave. And she, when he brought a candle and
her eyes caught sight of his face, bearded and worn, must shut her lips
tight and fight hard to keep back the tears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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