She knelt beside him; was bending over him.
“Oh, Peter—it is you, then? Are you hurt—wounded?” Her whisper was guarded as his own had been.
“Yes—wounded sore but only in my feelings—over being outwitted.”
“It’s just as well I didn’t know you in the gloom. I’d have thought you dead and died myself. I was near-dead of nervousness already. Knowing you were armed, I feared when I heard the gun report that you had shot some one and been captured. I couldn’t have stayed here doing nothing much longer, despite my promise. Don’t know just what I’d have done, but——”
“But that’s been decided for you,” he supplied, in an ecstasy over the confession back of her words. “You are here to un-hog-tie me. The key-knot is pressing the small of my back, or I don’t know the feel of one. See what you can do.”
She leaned over him, her hands clasped over his helpless ones. “Only if you promise me,” she bargained with a vague, tender smile which he just could see, “that you won’t go back at them again. Otherwise you’re much safer tied—hog or human.”
“I’ll promise anything if you’ll just lower those lips one half an inch. I think I can reach the rest of the way.”
But she evidently decided to free him without the promise and trust to his discretion. Helping him turn over, she busied herself with his bonds. Long and strong as were her fingers, however, they made no impression upon this particular key-knot, tied to stay tied with some sailor-taught knack.
“Feel in my coat pocket,” he suggested. “If they’ve left me a couple of matches——”
She did. And they had. A stroke across his boot top lit one. The odor of burning hemp did not offend their nostrils; rather, was more grateful than the most subtle incense from the freedom promised in its fumes. After the fourth and last Lucifer had been burned to a char, the girl was able to fray and sunder the rest of the rope. The “key” turned, Pape made short work of the other knots, shook off his bonds and gained his feet. His first act of freedom was to seize and kiss the two taper-tipped, nail-broken, burnt-finger hands which had liberated him.