“Who’s that?” he exclaimed suddenly.
A man in white was coming out of the house. He opened the gate in front of them.
Julie hesitated. She had identified the secret residence.
“It is the house of Nemecia Victoria,” she replied.
“The village Thaïs! That was an American. No native is so tall.”
He rose soberly. “I must go back and sit on the lid of my little hell. I’m all right now. I went wild, and have done a mad thing, but it has set me right.”
They strolled along close to the fence that cut the woods off from the public road. They stopped at the dilapidated gate. He took her hands in his. “Dear, little, unforgettable friend of a few hours! We have both to stick to our outposts now, but these times can’t last forever. Till better days then, and don’t let me pass out of your thoughts! Good-by!” He bent down and kissed her on the cheek.
Then he struck off at once into the darkness of the thicket. Julie watched motionlessly at the gate till the shadowy form disappeared. She had been groping around in darkness for a hand, and suddenly, out of another’s extremity, one had come to meet her own. Adams and she had both deeply become involved in a great struggle. They had both, the girl subconsciously felt, been elected to the destiny of the East. Between them there was a cemented bond. By himself “holding out,” he had helped her across the ditch.
A sound close at hand caused her to look around quickly. The figure of a man in white was turning down a side street, not a few yards away. Julie recognized it as the same figure that she and Adams had seen emerge from Nemecia Victoria’s house.