Joe marched on unheeding to the cottage Alf had just left.
Ruth must have been awaiting him: for he entered at once without knocking.
CHAPTER XXXVI
RUTH FACES THE STORM
That night as the Colonel sat on the loggia chewing his pipe, long after Mrs. Lewknor had retired, he was aware of a pillar of blackness, erect against the dull sea and star-lit sky, on the edge of the cliff, at the very spot where he had seen it on the night of the declaration of war.
Electric torch in hand, he stole out on the pair. Oblivious of all things save each other, they remained locked in each other's arms. He flashed the torch full in their faces.
"O, Joe!" came a familiar voice.
The Colonel was taken a-back.
"That you, Anne?" he muttered.
"Yes, sir," his parlour-maid answered. "Me and my Joe. He come up to say goodbye. Joining up to-morrow, he is."