“I’ll strike off inland. You take the sea side,” said Haynes, as the two lighted lanterns and passed out into the dead blackness. “And, by the way,” he added, “I wouldn’t make my light any more conspicuous than necessary.”
“All right,” said Dick. “I’ve no particular desire to attract Whalley’s attention.”
Within ten minutes the young doctor heard voices, and called. Professor Ravenden’s dry accents answered him. With a hail to Haynes, Colton ran forward. He almost plunged into Dolly Ravenden’s horse, which reared and snorted.
“What is it?” cried the girl. “Oh, it’s Dr. Colton. Are you hunting the night-flying arachnida?”
“I was looking for you.”
“Has anything happened?” asked the girl quickly, sobered by his tone. “Helga? Mr. Haynes?”
“No, all are safe.” He laid his hand on the neck of her mount. “But you must come home at once. There is danger abroad.”
“Why, Dr. Colton, you’re trembling! I wouldn’t have believed you knew what it was to be afraid.”
“You don’t know what it is to care——” he cut off the words with something like a sob. “Thank God, we found you!”
Then the girl had cause to bless the darkness, for from her heart there surged a flood to her face, and with it woman’s first doubt and fear and glory. “Perhaps I do know,” she thought. For an instant, she closed her eyes and saw him as he had come draggled and staggering from the sea. She opened them upon his stalwart figure and the clean-cut, manly face, still drawn with anxiety, clear in the light of the lantern.