“It went. ‘We change as life changes,’ she said. ‘They never found you, did they?’
“From the way she said it I saw she expected me to say ‘No’. So I said ‘No’.
“‘That was left for me to return and do,’ she went on with a kind of queer joy that gave me the shivers again.
“‘Yes,’ I agreed, wishing I knew what she was driving at, but sticking to my text. ‘And here we are.’
“‘Together,’ says she. ‘Isn’t it wonderful! After all these years. The instant I saw your statement in the newspaper I knew it was your soul calling to mine across the ages.’
“You know, Professor Kent, I thought that was so good I made a note of it for future business use. While I was saying it over to myself she gave me a jar:
“‘Our boat is at the shore,’ she said.
“In that last letter she mentioned a ship. And, now, here was this boat business. (Afterward I looked for a sign of either, but could not find any. I thought perhaps it would explain the other part of the ‘we’ and ‘our’.) If I was going to elope by sea I wanted to know it, and I said as much.
“‘Are you steadfast?’ she asked.
“Well, there was only one answer to that. I said I was. She opened her package and took out a coil of rope. It was this gray-white rope, sort of clothes-line, and it looked strong.