"Well, I thank you and Bernel with my whole heart. Please God I may some time be able to repay you!"
"If you are safe, that is all we want. Now I must go. We must get back before they miss us."
"God keep you, dear!" and he bent and kissed her, and as before she kissed him back with the frankness of a child.
He was about to follow her when she turned to go, but she said imperatively, "Stop here, or you may lose yourself in the dark. And in the day-time do not walk on the ridge or they may see you—"
"And the gun? What is that for?"
"If they should come here after you, you will keep them off with it," she said, with a spurt of the true Island spirit. "It is your life they seek, and they are in the wrong. But no one ever comes here, and you will not need it. Now, good-bye! And God have you in His keeping!"
"And you, dearest—and all yours!"—and she was gone like a flitting shadow.
And while he still stood peering into the darkness into which she had merged, she suddenly materialized again and was by his side.
"I forgot. Bernel told me to tell you it throws a little high. But I hope you won't need it. And there is fresh water among the rocks at the south end there."
He caught her to him again, and kissed her ardently, and then she was gone.