Kathleen and the others were expected home on the fifteenth of September. She had told Ralph when to look for her, and he in return wrote that she was to look up at a certain favourite tree which bordered the road, as she passed it. He would meet her at the Hall very soon after her arrival there.
Kathleen did not forget the request, and, on looking upwards, noticed a flag dangling from one of the highest boughs; but, instead of waving in the wind, the stick to which it was fastened was uppermost.
"Poor Ralph's signal is reversed," she said with a smile at its limp condition. "What a height he must have climbed to attach it to that bough!"
"A most dangerous height," said Mr. Matheson. "Ralph could not have reached it unassisted. I hope he is unconscious of the ungraceful condition of his signal."
"He will not care for that half an hour hence," said Geraldine. "The sight of Kitty will make the boy forget everything else."
There was no Ralph to greet them on their arrival, and soon Kathleen began to look anxiously for his coming. Mrs. Ellicott suggested that the boy had gone home to don his best suit after fixing the flag.
Aylmer did not answer, but asked the ladies to excuse his leaving them. Something in his face struck Kathleen with dread, and, throwing a soft shawl round her head, she followed him. Aylmer was going towards the tree from which the flag depended, and as he neared it he quickened his pace to a run. When beneath it he knelt, and bent over something which lay motionless on the ground.
A great fear took possession of Kathleen, but hurrying on, she saw that Aylmer was bending over what appeared to be the lifeless body of Ralph Torrance. A broken bough lay beside him, and the boy's arm was partly entangled in it.
"Oh, Ralph, my dear little friend, you have lost your life in trying to show your love for me!" cried Kathleen, almost beside herself with grief, as she saw the deathlike face of her favourite. "I might have known that nothing would keep you from me, if you had the power to come to me."
These words were followed by a paroxysm of grief, and the girl, without heeding what Aylmer said, threw herself on the grass and kissed the pale face again and again, whilst her tears fell like rain on it.