She had grown accustomed to the silences and now and then paused in
her pacing to stop and listen. She thought she heard a sound different
from the others--behind her it seemed, a subdued murmur, which, as she
listened, grew in intensity until she clearly made it out to be the
quick reverberations of a motor, running with its cut-out open. It was
coming fast, and in a moment a long fan of light shot across the sky
from below the brow of a distant hill and then fell suddenly to earth,
where it picked out the shapes of trees and bushes along what appeared
to be its road. The motor was not traveling toward her, but at an angle
which would make it pass near her, but quickly as she mounted and
rode toward it she was unable even to come within earshot before the
machine had passed and was lost to sight in the distance. It had not
gone by so rapidly that Doris had not been able to make out on a rise
of ground against the sky the profile of a roadster and the shapes of
two men. Cyril and Stryker! There could be no doubt of it, for the
body of Cyril’s car was familiar to her and the chances of any other
machine being abroad in this locality at this hour were remote indeed.
Where were they going? In which direction? Toward Saltham Rocks or
northward? She did not know, but decided to take the chance and follow.
She reached the road without difficulty--a trail it appeared to be with
well-defined wheel tracks and the marks of hoofs. She pressed her horse
onward in the wake of the speeding machine, not to overtake it, but to
reach a destination of some sort which would be better than the utter
loneliness of the desolate moor, the silence and inaction of which made
her a prey to unhappy thoughts. Her horse was willing, and as the going
was good broke into a brisk trot which for a while kept the glow of the
swinging searchlight of the machine in sight. But presently that, too,
disappeared and all was as before. And glancing above she understood.
To her right a pale streak of light was showing along the horizon, and
above her between patches of dark clouds she caught a faint reflection
of violet light. It was the beginning of the dawn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account