“David!” Sally shrieked. “David!”
She began to run, her ankles turning against clots of cinders, but her arms outstretched, a glory greater than that of the dawn in her face.
Before she reached him Sally almost fainted with horror, for in the pale light of the dawn she saw that David’s shirt about his left shoulder was soaked with blood. But his uninjured right arm was stretched out in urgent invitation, and his voice was hailing her gaily, in spite of his terrible weakness and fatigue.
“Dear little Sally!” he cried huskily, as his right arm swept her against his breast. “Why aren’t you in bed, darling? But I’m glad you’re not! I’ve been able to keep plodding on in the hope of seeing you. Did you think I’d run away and left you? Poor little Sally!” he crooned over her, for she was crying, her frantic hands playing over his face, her eyes devouring him through her tears.
“But you’re hurt, David!” she moaned. “I knew you were hurt! I told them so! I was looking for you. I knew you hadn’t run away.”
“And she made us believe you hadn’t, too,” Pop Bybee panted, having reached them on a run, dragging his wife behind him. “What happened, Dave boy? Had a mix-up with the dirty crooks, did you?”
“Winfield Bybee, you are a fool!” Mrs. Bybee gasped, breathless from running. “Let the poor boy get his breath first. Here! Put your arm about him and let him lean on you. Sally, you run back to the train and get help. This boy’s all done up and he’s going to have that shoulder dressed before he’s pestered to death with questions.”
“I can walk,” David panted, his breath whistling across his ashen lips. “I don’t want Sally out of my sight. I—would—give up—then. Nothing much—the matter. Just a—bullet—in my shoulder. Be all right—in a—day or two.”
“Please don’t try to talk, darling,” Sally begged, rubbing her cheek against his right hand and wetting it with tears.
“Lean on me and take it easy,” Pop Bybee urged, his voice husky with unashamed emotion. “And don’t talk any more till we get you into a berth. God! But I’m glad to see you, Dave boy! I’d made up my mind I’d never trust another man if you’d thrown me down. But Sally didn’t doubt you a minute. Kept me from telling the police that you had disappeared with the crooks.”