Drawing closer now, I felt the ground beneath my feet.
"Marc," I called softly, "I'm coming, lad!"
The drooped head was lifted.
"Father!" he exclaimed. And there was something like a sob in that cry of joy. It caught my heart strangely, telling me he was still a boy for all he had borne himself so manfully in the face of sudden and appalling peril. Now the long tension was loosed. He was alone with me. As I sprang to him and cut the thongs that held him, one arm went about my neck and I was held very close for the space of some few heart-beats. Then he fetched a deep breath, stretched his cramped limbs this way and that, and said simply, "I knew you would come, Father! I knew you would find a way!"
Chapter IV
The Governor's Signature
The clouds slipped clear of the moon's face, and we three—Marc, I, and the stake—cast sudden long black shadows which led all the way down to the edge of the increeping tide. I looked at the shadows, and a shudder passed through me as if a cold hand had been laid upon my back. Marc stood off a little,—never have I seen such quick control, such composure, in one so inexperienced,—and remarked to me:—
"What a figure of a man you are, Father, to be sure!"
I fell into his pretence of lightness at once, a high relief after the long and deadly strain; and I laughed with some pleasure at the praise. In very truth, I cherished a secret pride in my body.