"If we were but at the roof of it!" said the other. "I long to tackle the great serpent of eternity, and lay him twining and coiling and undulating all over it! I dream about those tombs before ever they were broken into-royally furnished in the dark, waiting for the souls to come back to their old, brown, dried up bodies!"
Here one of them rose and came toward her, growing bigger and blacker as he came, until he stood by the bedside. He laid his hand on her wrist, and felt her pulse. It was Ian! She could not see his face for there was no light on it, but she knew his shape, his movements! She was saved!
He saw her wide eyes, two great spiritual nights, gazing up at him.
"All, you are better, Miss Mercy!" lie said cheerily. "Now you shall have some tea!"
Something inside her was weeping for joy, but her outer self was quite still. She tried again to speak, and uttered a few inarticulate sounds. Then came Alister on tip-toe, and they stood both by the bedside, looking down on her.
"I shall be all right presently!"' she managed at length to say. "I am so glad I'm not dead! I thought I was dead!"
"You would soon have been if we had not found you!" replied Alister.
"Was it you that fired the gun?"
"Yes."
"I was so frightened!"