“Is that you, Jack Gedge?”
“Sure enough.”
“And Ludar?”
The fellow gave a gasp, but said nothing. And, in the horror of that silence, I lost all care of life.
I must have been lying still in the same place when next, with a strange thrill of wonder, I lifted my eyes and saw, bent over me, the sweet face of my own Jeannette.
“Humphrey,” whispered she, as she kissed my wet brow, “is it indeed thou?”
“Ay, sweetheart,” said I.
And I forgot all else for a while.
Presently they carried me up to the top of the path, Jeannette walking with her hand in mine. And so, till before us rose a grim portal which I knew well to be the gate of Dunluce.
The sight of that familiar entry recalled to my mind the great burden on my heart.