Not till dawn did he hear anything like a launch. Then just as the eastern clouds revealed a strip of gold, there stole upon his ear the pulse of an engine. It was feeling its way down the coast from the northeast, as if searching every bay. By and by a green light approached his own port light and stopped.
Chapter 55. Caesium
Far below him the alders parted, and a woman’s form appeared, with a basket on her arm. The light was dim, but not too dim to reveal the woman’s autumnal vigor. She mounted slowly to his very feet, and stood smiling up at him.
“I am Moira Jamison.”
“Your grateful servant. Miss Jamison.”
“Where is she?”
He numbly descended and led the way. There lay his young love, asleep at last, the sweet dawn just touching the forbidden lips.
He helped the Red Leaf down, and she kissed the sleeper awake.
“Goodness gracious! Is it you? How in the world did you know?”
“Why, the patrol was hunting for Captain Mahan to give him a telegram. Ojeeg had to confess his sin, and he came very near being murdered. But Captain John came home and told his mother, and she sent her husband down with the telegram and with me. You see the advantage. If anybody dares to breathe a word against my Naynokahsee, he’ll have to breathe two against the old Red Leaf.”