* * * * * * *
But Thyrza!
It came over me in a flash, vivid as lightning, how long I had been there. Thyrza ought by this time, surely, to have reached the lower slopes.
I looked up, running my eyes swiftly over the broad mountain face, searching from below to above, from right to left. In vain. No Thyrza was to be seen. I scanned the frowning beauty of the level summit, and travelled downward again to the spot where I had noted her last. But Thyrza had vanished.
[CHAPTER XXXVI.]
AND HE—!
THE SAME—continued.
I HAD not looked at my watch when Thyrza left me. A glance at it now showed the afternoon to be far advanced; indeed, this I already knew from the slant of the sun's rays.
Blaming myself much for the absorption in my own affairs, to which I had weakly yielded, I stood up and again eagerly scanned the green slopes; without result.
Had Thyrza reached the top, and there been taken ill from over-exertion? Such a thing might happen. Or had she lost her footing, and rolled downward?