"Are you sure you didn't hurt yourself when you fell?"
"I think not," she answered, as she passed her hand over her hair. "My head doesn't seem to be bruised or bleeding anywhere. It must have been the shock."
"Thank God it was nothing worse!" returned Drew fervently. "But tell me how you happened to be here. It seems like a miracle. The whole thing staggers me. I thought I left you outside of the cave when I went in."
"So you did," she assented with a touch of her old demureness, "but that doesn't say that I stayed there."
"I see it doesn't," he replied. "But why didn't you?"
"I guess it's because I'm not used to obeying anybody except my father," she answered evasively.
"Tell me the real reason."
"Well," she said, driven to bay, "I was afraid there might be something dangerous in here and—and—I didn't want you to have to face it alone—and"—here she paused.
Drew's heart beat wildly.
"And so you came in to stand by my side," he said with emotion. "Ruth, Ruth——"