“You—you, Margaret—you came for us!”
“Yes.” There was no need to explain that she had come for him, for him alone. Oh, she would be very glad that the others should win to life—but she had come for him, for him only. “You are safe?” she added.
“Yes.” The others were silent, giving the dialogue to the girl and Saxe, for they understood how it was between the two. “You came by the other entrance, of which you told me?”
“Yes—through the chimney, on the ridge by the shore. May is there, watching and waiting for Jake to come. We shall need help to get out. It is hard to climb. I slipped coming down.”
“You are hurt!” The lover’s voice was harsh with fear.
But Margaret laughed blithely. What matter a few bruises now?
“It shook me up a bit,” she confessed. “But I’m all right. The worst of it was that I lost my torch. Can you come to me here? I know how to find the way back in the dark.”
Billy Walker deemed it time that he should assume direction of the affair.
“Do you know how high above the water you are there, Miss West?” he demanded. The gruff voice was very gentle, for gratitude to this girl burned hot in him, as in the others. She had brought the gift of life to dead men.
“No,” Margaret answered.