She still held a glowing fire-stick in her hand, as she peered through the billowing cloud of smoke where she had flung an ignited bomb. She had fled from her shelter, in desperate dread, lest a murderous fate overtake her companion, battling alone with the fiends. She had found his post deserted, and, having discerned two figures on the trail, had instantly obeyed an impulse to protect the hill with the only means provided.
She uttered a cry as she saw Grenville crouching behind her, raising her brand like a weapon, then sinking in relief.
"You!" he said. "Elaine! I might have known!"
"I am sure they are coming up behind us there!" she answered. "I know I heard the bamboo buckets jangling! Have you been across to see?"
"I fired the bomb," he answered. "Didn't you know?"
She shook her head. Her ears, that had been so finely attuned to catch the warning from the rearward cliff, had received or recorded no impression whatsoever of the huger disturbance, while her own bomb's colossal thunder and shock engrossed her eager attention.
"Was anyone there?" she asked, half choking with the reek. "I suppose you couldn't see."
"I saw no one when lighting the fuse," he answered. "What was happening here?"
She related what she had seen and what she had done.
"I hope I killed them!" she added, weak and dizzy from the smoke. "But they probably ran away!"