Iona remembered this as she fled along. She had not seen the men who were sent to follow her. They had taken the inner road, which was a little shorter.
From all the road she followed and from the water-gate, the signals were visible; and running breathlessly, she yet kept them in view.
They changed.
The strangers were searching the house!
They changed. The door was discovered!
Even at that distance it seemed to Iona that she heard a sharp outcry rise from the town as that signal slid out, the first time that it had ever been run out in San Salvador.
Their secret was gone!
But her hope was not gone. In ten minutes she would be at the gate; and it must turn for her. To have discovered the door was not infallibly to open it; or, opening it, there must be some delay.
Moreover, the cave was prepared to detain the strangers a few minutes, at least.
And then an awful question presented itself to her mind. Should she turn the gate if the strangers were on the bridge? What were the lives of three intruders to the existence of San Salvador! An insinuating whisper made itself heard in her heart: “Run and turn the gate. You need not look at the signal!”