“Follow me,” she sang, “only keep as you are, keep as you are, close to the wall, close to the wall.”
And on she strolled to her own tune, and came abreast of me without turning her head; so I crept in the shadow (my ugly weapon tucked out of sight), and she sauntered in the shine, until we came to the end of the garden, where the path turned at right angles, running behind the rhododendrons; once in their shelter, she halted and beckoned me, and next instant I had her hands in mine.
“At last!” was all that I could say for many a moment, as I stood there gazing into her dear eyes, no hero in my heroic hour, but the bigger love-sick fool than ever. “But quick—quick—quick!” I added, as she brought me to my senses by withdrawing her hands. “We've no time to lose.” And I looked wildly from wall to wall, only to find them as barren and inaccessible on this side as on the other.
“We have more time than you think,” were Eva's first words. “We can do nothing for half-an-hour.”
“Why not?”
“I'll tell you in a minute. How did you manage to get over?”
“Brought boulders from the beck, and piled 'em up till I could reach the top.”
I thought her eyes glistened.
“What patience!” she cried softly. “We must find a simpler way of getting out—and I think I have. They've all gone, you know, but José.”
“All three?”