He hastened at a gallop up the ridge away from the creek, his mind still on that red scarf flung about by the winter wind.
“It was a strange thing,” he thought, “but every human token is startling out here. What’s that now?” 68
The doctor had a plainsman’s ear as well as a plainsman’s eye. As he listened, through the wail of the wind borne along the distance, he caught the words of a song, low and pleading like a plaintive cry for help:
| Though, like the wanderer, The sun gone down, Darkness be over me, My rest a stone— Yet in my dreams I’d be Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee. |
It was a woman’s voice and Carey faced about to listen. He knew it came from the bushes below the red scarf. So he changed his course and hurried around a bend in the stream to the other side of the brush where Virginia Aydelot stood beside Juno.
“I’m afraid there isn’t even a stone to rest on here, Madam. Can I be of any service to you?” he said, lifting his hand toward his cap in semi-military salute.
Virginia stood looking at the stranger with a half-comprehending gaze. She had been less than an hour beside the bushes, but it had seemed to her like many hours. And the terrifying certainty of a night alone on the prairie made the sudden presence of a human being unreal to her.
“I beg your pardon; I am Dr. Carey, of Carey’s Crossing, and I was striking across the prairie to the Big Wolf settlement when I saw your scarf and heard your singing. I took them both to be distress signals and came over to see if you needed me.”
One had only to listen to Dr. Carey’s voice to understand why Darley Champers should accuse him of laying a charm on the whole settlement. 69
Virginia recovered herself quickly, saying with a wan smile: