"Yes, I am here," replied Idris, his heart leaping with delight at this proof of her interest in his welfare. "Near the summit of the cliff was a narrow shelf of rock: on this ledge I lay down and waited, with my revolver pointing to the night sky. I knew that my gentleman would peep over again presently to mark my progress. He did. What the kites left of him you'll find at the foot of the cliff."
If pleasure at the death of a fellow-mortal be an anti-Christian feeling, it must be confessed that Lorelie Rivière had little of the Christian in her at that moment.
Now that he had once entered upon his personal history, she would not let him quit it, betraying such interest that Idris almost wondered whether she had a secret motive in wishing to hear his biography.
The most romantic part of his career, however, namely, that relating to the runic ring and the quest for his father, he carefully reserved, giving instead an account of his travels through Europe, and recalling many a curious legend from "out-of-the-way" places.
Long ere Lorelie was sated with these reminiscences the first stars of night glimmered in the blue air above: and, that nothing might be wanting to complete a romantic situation, the moon, rising in all her glory from the depth of ocean, silvered with its radiance the entrance of the cave. The light passed within bringing into relief the statuesque pose of Lorelie's figure. It gleamed on her wealth of raven hair, and hallowed her face with new and mystic beauty, as, with her cheek pillowed on her hands, she sat attentive to Idris, drinking in his words as the fabled Oriental bird is said to drink the moonbeams.
So lovely and interested a listener might well have turned the head of the frostiest hermit. What wonder, then, that the one thought in Idris' mind at this moment was:—"O that this might last forever!"
CHAPTER IX IDRIS MEETS A RIVAL
Observing a shiver on the part of Lorelie, due to the chilly air, Idris rose to put into effect a plan that had suddenly occurred to him. Charming as the situation was to himself, he had no wish to prolong it at the expense of discomfort to his companion.