Ruth was the first to recover.
“My valise is in the boat,” she said, with a strange little laugh.
For a tense moment Jimmy was silent. Then:
“Yes,” he replied; “I forgot it.” He sprang down and returned with the bag. “I’m afraid you’ll have to send for it and go home alone. The launch would get damaged if I left her here, and I couldn’t take her alongside your landing to-night.”
“It isn’t very far through the woods,” Ruth said, and hesitated a moment before she gave him her hand. “I’m glad I met you, and I will look forward to hearing of your success.”
Jimmy dropped her hand quickly and jumped back on board, but Ruth stood still until the launch vanished into the darkness. Then she started homeward with her nerves tingling and her heart beating fast. She knew what Jimmy felt for her, and she wondered when the time would come when he could avow it openly.
CHAPTER XXV—PAYING A DEBT
Aynsley, sitting near an open window in his office, laid down his pen and looked out with a sense of satisfaction. A great raft of lumber was ready to start down the river, and men were scrambling about it loosing the mooring-chains. The pond was full of logs lately run down on a freshet, and the green flood swirled noisily past them. Its color indicated that the snow was melting fast on the lofty inland ranges, and sweet resinous scents rose from the stacks of cedar where the sunshine struck hot upon them. A cloud of smoke streamed across the long sheds and streaked the pines behind the mill with a dingy smear; and the scream of saws and the crash of flung-out boards filled the clearing. All this suggested profitable activity; and Aynsley’s satisfaction deepened as he glanced at some letters which a clerk handed him. They contained orders, and he foresaw that he would soon have to increase the capacity of the mill. He was thinking over a scheme for doing so when his father was shown in. Clay smiled at his surprise, and sat down in the nearest chair, breathing heavily.
“Why don’t you locate on the ground-floor instead of making people walk up those blamed awkward steps?” he asked.
“I can see better from here what’s going on,” Aynsley explained. “I find it saves me a little money now and then.”