I must have seemed a vision clinging there against the sky, yet all at once the truth burst upon him, and, with a wave of the arm, he sprang up the low bank, and joined his Indians. I could not hear what he said, but with a single word he left them, and disappeared among the trees at the foot of the bluff.
I drew back, almost frightened, half inclined to flee before he could attain the summit. What could I say? How could I meet him? What if Cassion had followed me up the path, or had despatched one of his men to spy upon my movements? Ever since leaving Quebec my one hope had been this interview with De Artigny, yet now that it was imminent I shrank from it, in actual confusion, my heart fluttering, my mind blank, yet I was not a coward, and did not run, but waited, feeling my limbs tremble under me, and listening for the first sound of his approach.
He must have scrambled straight up the steep face of the bluff, for it could have been scarcely more than a minute, when I heard him crunching a passage through the bushes, and then saw him emerge above the edge. Clinging to a tree limb, his eyes sought eagerly to locate me, and when I stepped forward, he sprang erect, and bowed, jerking his hat from his head. There was about his action the enthusiasm of a boy, and his face glowed with an eagerness and delight which instantly broke down every barrier between us.
“You waved to me?” he exclaimed. “You wished me to come?”
“Yes,” I confessed, swept from my guard by his enthusiasm. “I have been anxious to confer with you, and this is my first opportunity.”
“Why I thought you avoided me,” he burst forth. “It is because I felt so that I have kept away.”
“There was nothing else I could do but pretend,” I exclaimed, gaining control over my voice as I spoke. “My every movement has been watched since we left Quebec; this is the first moment I have been left alone––if, indeed, I am now.” And I glanced about doubtfully into the shadows of the forest.
“You imagine you may have been followed here? By whom? Cassion?”