He turned and went into the cabin without giving King a chance to speak, and King sat down again and went over in his own mind the details of the story Keith McBain had told him.
It must have been an hour later—King did not know how long he had been there alone—when he heard Cherry's step in the cabin, and lifting his eyes, saw her standing in the doorway.
"You must go to bed," she said, and her voice betrayed the fact that she had been weeping.
He looked at her a moment without speaking. Then he got up and turned towards her.
"Come out a minute, Cherry," he said, very softly.
She stepped down, and coming to where he stood, waited for him to speak. Taking her arm he led her off a short distance along the path, where they had walked together only a few hours before. Neither of them spoke until they had reached a point in the pathway from which only the light of the cabin was visible through the heavy, low-hanging branches of the trees.
Then King stopped and faced her, with his two hands resting on her shoulders.
"Your father has told me the whole story, Cherry," he said.
Cherry's head dropped and her shoulders shook under King's hands.
"I didn't think it was so bad," she sobbed.