“I saw the shack—and the ashes of the fire and I saw you coming through the bushes toward it. But when you came to the fire I was not there. You called me, but I couldn’t answer. I tried to, but I seemed to be dumb—and then—and that was all.”
“A dream. It was all true—except the last.”
“That’s why I came. I wanted to be here, so that if you did come, you might not be disappointed. I had failed you before. I did not want it to happen again. I brought Challón to show me the way. I was coming here again—and again—until you found me.”
He raised her chin and looked into her eyes.
“Dream again, dear.”
“I’m dreaming now,” she sighed. “It is so sweet. Don’t let me wake, Phil. It—it mightn’t be true.”
“Yes, it’s true, all true. You’ll marry me, Jane?”
“Whenever you ask me to.”
He looked away from her down the stream where the sunlight danced in the open.
“I told you once that I would come for you some day—when I had conquered myself,” he said slowly, “when I had made a place among the useful men of the world, when I could look my Enemy in the eye—for a long while and not be defeated—to stare him down until he stole away—far off where I wouldn’t ever find him.”