CHAPTER XVIII.
Norman Benedict had removed Kate Strong’s legging and the long buttoned shoe that had covered her sprained ankle, and had deftly bound up the injured member with a handkerchief, after he had relieved the pain by applying cold water and a gentle massage.
“You have been very kind to me,” said Kate, gratefully, as she leaned back on the sofa and realized how much more comfortable the reporter’s skill had made her feel. “I owe you a great debt of gratitude.” How much she was indebted to Benedict she did not fully realize, for he had been under a strong temptation to follow Rudolph at any cost when he had learned that the lodge-keeper was the very Rexanian he had come up into Westchester to find.
“Your man, there,” said Benedict, questioningly, glancing at his watch, “has he been long in your service?”
“Several years,” answered Kate. “I believe he was exiled from Rexania after the revolution of ten years ago.”
Her remark tended to increase the reporter’s interest in the lodge-keeper.
“They are a curious people, those Rexanians,” he remarked, drawing a chair toward the sofa and seating himself where he could watch Kate’s face. “I have seen something of them on the East Side.”
Kate felt an almost irresistible desire to confess to the youth that they were a race in which she took at that moment an interest that was founded on a most unhappy incident.