For a moment Buenos acted like one demented, but then as he found she did not return his caresses, a great fear assailed him; he feared she was dead. And indeed, her looks favored this supposition.
So pale and ghastly, lying against his heart like one utterly devoid of life. But this great sorrow was spared the young man.
Soon, beneath the fervid pressure of his lips, the color and warmth came back to her face, and then her eyes opened. The wild, hunted look quickly disappeared from them, and with a low, glad cry her arms wound around his neck.
“Thank God! you have found me, Buenos!” she murmured, faintly.
“But where have you been, darling? Why did you leave us so strangely?”
Whereupon Clara briefly detailed her adventures of the past night, adding:
“I saw them all together, shouting and screaming, shooting at each other, and it frightened me terribly. What could these two men, though so brave, do against six great Indians? I believed they must both be killed, and then as I thought of how the savages would hunt for and find me, it seemed as though I would go crazy! I would rather die than fall into their hands, and yet I knew that they would capture me if I should stay there until it was all over.
“So I turned and fled, not knowing whither I went, but only thinking to escape from these dreadful savages. I ran on until I fell from weakness, but then, as I fancied I could hear them coming after me, I arose and kept on, only knowing that I was running away from them. I did not know where I was, nor whither I was going, and I believe that I must have died had not you found me, dear Buenos,” she added, with a hysterical sob.
“Poor Clara—how you must have suffered!” murmured Ayres, pressing his lips to her brow.
“Indeed I have—more than words can tell. But I knew you would come for me—I felt sure you would not leave me to die here all alone. Poor father—how he must have suffered from my thoughtlessness!”