After a while he was able to distinguish the outline 229 of her casement, and, with much patience and some little skill remaining from the boyhood days, he kept up the faint call. Down at the big barn the chained watch-dog tore himself with a fury of barking at the intruder, but mountain-lions were common in the Gap, and the noisy sentinel gained no credit for his alarm. Indeed, when the dog slackened his fierceness, de Spain threw a stone over his way to encourage a fresh outburst. But neither the guardian nor the intruder was able to arouse any one within the house.
Undeterred by his failure, de Spain held his ground as long as he dared. When daybreak threatened, he withdrew. The following night he was in the Gap earlier, and with renewed determination. He tossed a pebble into Nan’s open window and renewed his soft call. Soon, a light flickered for an instant within the room and died out. In the darkness following this, de Spain thought he discerned a figure outlined at the casement. Some minutes later a door opened and closed. He repeated the cry of the owl, and could hear a footstep; the next moment he whispered her name as she stood before him.
“What is it you want?” she asked, so calmly that it upset him. “Why do you come here?”
Where he stood he was afraid of the sound of her voice, and afraid of his own. “To see you,” 230 he said, collecting himself. “Come over to the pine-tree.”
Under its heavy branches where the darkness was most intense, he told her why he had come––because he could not see her anywhere outside.
“There is nothing to see me about,” she responded, still calm. “I helped you because you were wounded. I was glad to see you get away without fighting––I hate bloodshed.”
“But put yourself in my place a little, won’t you? After what you did for me, isn’t it natural I should want to be sure you are well and not in any trouble on my account?”
“It may be natural, but it isn’t necessary. I am in no trouble. No one here knows I even know you.”
“Excuse me for coming, then. I couldn’t rest, Nan, without knowing something. I was here last night.”
“I know you were.”