The metallic voice had rung out so that not a word escaped me. Then the wind dying fitfully away let me hear the sound of retreating hoofs, and I knew that for the time we were safe. I turned to find Asta standing behind me.
“Victory! The attack is repulsed and the siege raised,” I cried exultingly.
Her animated face showed that she had caught something of my confident spirit. But now that the immediate danger was past she was more reserved, and my respect bade me be content with simply the token of love and gratitude that her eyes gave me. It was not for me to profit by a moment of exaltation, when life and death trembling in the balance had hurried an avowal to lips which a few seconds might have closed for ever.
I half expected to see that Strode had followed me; as he did not appear I shouted to him, but to my surprise got no answer. In alarm I ran down, to find him stretched insensible on the floor where I had left him.
CHAPTER XXXVI
RESTORATION
My distress and grief at the sight were beyond description. That the brave fellow who had been such a tower of strength and to whom we owed certainly our lives should have fallen in the moment of victory caused me the keenest grief I had ever felt. But happily it was not so bad as I feared. He was alive, his pulse was distinctly beating, so I rushed upstairs for a light and the brandy. On returning with Asta we found that poor Strode’s coat and shirt were saturated with blood. The sight, though alarming enough, gave me hope that he had merely fainted, and this proved to be the case. The wound in his shoulder, which he had in those critical moments laughed off as a mere graze, was deep if not serious, and had bled profusely. The man’s pluck and grit had been wonderful to enable him to fight on as he did, laughing and jesting, under such pain and weakness. In a few minutes our efforts at restoration were successful, and I think the most gratifying sight of my life was that of those brave grey eyes slowly opening.
“It’s all right, Strode, dear fellow! Why didn’t you say you were hurt?”
For answer he laughed and tried to rise, but the weakness was too great. “I’m all right directly,” he murmured. “Don’t worry about me. The Fräulein——”