And after them, despite the imploring commands of the officer, Ellen Maggs.
Jim Barnes came face to face with her as he squirmed out of the brush and brushed the blood from his eyes. A kris had slithered athwart his scalp; for a moment he thought she was a vision, standing there in the fresh sunlight, her eyes fastened upon him, her hands outreaching. Then he heard her voice.
"Oh, Jim, Jim! If you had only known—it was barely five miles up to the post! And we were hours getting there. Thank God, you're alive!"
It was quite as a matter of course that Jim Barnes took her in his arms and held her close to him for a long moment. Speech came hard. There was everything to say, and nothing. Suddenly he realized that she was trembling.
"Oh, Jim! You'll have to help me. I—I told an awful lie——"
She was frightened, nervous, tearful, and yet a smile crept into her-blushing cheeks as she looked up into his eyes.
"Who to, me?" he asked, returning the smile.
"No. To—to the controleur. Controleur Updyke. He was terribly severe about it all. He wouldn't bring Nora, and he wasn't going to bring me——"
"What was the lie?" asked Barnes, puzzled.
Then he looked up to see the officer striding toward them. He realized abruptly that the little brown soldiers had been very busy all over the islet.