Plainer and plainer sounded the pattering steps on the frozen road, and as they drew nearer I thought I could tell that they were light steps—a woman's or a boy's, they seemed.
"Let's drop into the ditch and see who it is," whispered Jack.
We broke, two of us to either side of the road, and I found myself with my uncle stooping in one ditch, with Jack and the doctor across the road in the other. Thus bent down, one could see objects against the sky more distinctly and in a moment I spied the runner dimly, pattering down the middle of the road straight for us. And then, in a few seconds, this runner gradually took shape and my eyes at last could see the swing of a skirt and thought they could even recognise the slim figure. I jumped up.
"Wait!" muttered my uncle.
"It's all right! We mustn't frighten her," I said.
I came out into the middle of the road and saw the other three rising at the sides. The runner was barely twenty yards away by now and I heard her gasp as she stopped abruptly.
"Miss Rendall?" I said.
The next moment she had rushed up to me, her eyes sparkling, her voice coming in pants.
"Mr. Merton!" she panted and then her eyes fell on the others. "They've come then—I'm so glad!—forgive me for wiring—but—look!"
She handed me something small and long-shaped. It was a spectacle case.