“You heard my shouts? You heard our signal?”
“Oh--I don't know Allan. I can't think, yet--it's all so terrible--so confused--”
“There, there, sweetheart; don't think about it any more. Just lie down and rest. Go to sleep. I'll watch here beside you. You're safe. Nothing can hurt you now!”
She lay back with a sigh, and for a while kept silence while he sat beside her, his uninjured arm beneath her head.
His one ambition, now that he found she was not seriously hurt in body, was to keep her from talking of the horrible affair--from exciting herself and rehearsing her terrors. Above all, she must be quieted and kept calm.
At last, in her own natural voice, she spoke again.
“Allan?”
“What is it, sweetheart?”
“I owe you my life once more! If I was yours before, I'm ten times more yours now!”
He bent and kissed her, and presently her deepened breathing told him she had drifted over the borderline into the sleep of exhaustion.