She lifted her eyes to his in a long, tender gaze, deliberately slipped both arms around his neck and kissed his lips.
He held her close in a moment of strangling joy. She lifted her lips to his again, and spoke in tones so low that only the heart of love could hear:
“My darling—my own—my hero—my mate! I’ve loved you always from the first. I was too proud to surrender my will and mind, my body and soul to any man. I went away into the mountains to fight it out and love conquered, dear! I surrendered before I knew that your prophetic soul was right in sensing this black hour in life. I’m glad I gave up before I knew. It’s all love’s victory, dearest. I love you. I love you—I love you—and now Death is going to throw his shadow between us—”
A sob caught her voice.
“But I shall love you through all eternity and I thank God for this holy hour in which we meet and know, face to face—”
For two glorious hours they sat and held each other’s hands in the soft light of the half-fledged moon.
And then he rose, kissed her again and swiftly rode into the night toward the red dawn of Death.
CHAPTER XXX
THE grim gray wave of destruction from the sand dunes had rolled into battleline and spread out over the green clothed hills and valleys of the Island—swiftly, remorselessly, with an uncanny precision that was marvelous.
The scouts were soaring in the clear blue skies with keen eyes searching for the position of our guns.