But both doors were securely fastened—they were all locked within their prison; there was no hope of escape from it and the terrible crash awaiting them.
When the beautiful girl whom we have described realized the hopeless situation, she gave one cry of horror, then seemed to grow suddenly and strangely calm, though a pallor like that of death settled over her face, and a look of wild despair leaped into her eyes.
Involuntarily she glanced at the young man opposite her, and she found his gaze riveted upon her with a look of intense yearning, which betrayed that he had no thought for himself; that all his fear was for her; that the idea of seeing her, in all her bright young beauty, dashed in pieces, crushed and mangled, had overpowered all sense of his own personal doom.
She seemed to read his thoughts, and, like one in a dream or nightmare, she almost unconsciously stretched forth her hands to him with a gesture which seemed to appeal to him to save her.
Instantly he arose to his feet, calm, strong, resolute.
His face was as pale as hers, but there was a gleam in his eyes which told her that he would not spare himself in the effort to save her.
"Will you trust me?" he murmured hoarsely in her ear, as he caught her trembling hands in his.
Her fingers closed over his with a frantic clutch; her eyes sought his in desperate appeal.
"Yes! yes!" Her white lips framed the words, but no sound issued from them.
The car had now attained a frightful velocity; a moment or two more and all would be over, and there was not an instant to lose.