“But I must not be too sure.”
Soon a horse and rider appeared in the gulch, and, drawing rein, the soft, plaintive notes of the whippoorwill was heard.
“How that call carries me back to the past, for it was my call for Ruth,” and the man seemed to feel for an instant a pang of memory and remorse that overwhelmed him. Then as the call was repeated again and again he stepped out from the shadow and approached the girl where she sat upon her horse.
“Ah! brother, I am so glad to find you, for I was becoming anxious,” she said, as she slipped from her saddle to the ground.
“I was so taken aback at the old whippoorwill call, Ruth, that I could neither answer it nor speak. I was overwhelmed for a moment.”
“It was your call for me, when I was a little girl, Arden.”
“Yes, and that is what impressed me so.”
“Then you can feel, and you are not, as people have said, utterly heartless and callous?”
“I hope I am a changed man, my sister. But what am I to do?”
“You are to return with me to Pocket City, for I have a place in my wing of the hotel where I can hide and care for you for a few days, as it would by no means be safe for you to attempt now to go through the country alone.”