Her voice broke. Her eyes, swimming with tears, saw him turn toward the fire. A weight seemed lifted from him. She sensed the coming of a great peace to his soul.
CHAPTER XXI
A high dawn—one presaging storm—found the castaways standing beside the signal fire which swiftly smoldered into the ashes of hopelessness. The swell had increased during the morning hours. The hill now afforded a footing unsteadier than a laboring ship's deck. The breeze of the night continued light and steady.
With the first glimmer of day Lavelle went searching the sea. His gaze swung the horizon again and again, following the withdrawing mantle of night only to confront the old bitter emptiness of all the days that had gone before.
Lavelle's eyes kept seeking the distance, but Emily's, untrained, sought the sea at hand. So it was that her sight was the first to discover a sail barely two miles away to the south and west.
At the discovery her throat closed. She could not speak. She stood breathless, half in trance. Lavelle, turned to the eastward, felt her clutch his arm. He sent a glance whither she dumbly pointed.
"A sail!" he cried. "Saved! This means life, you brave, brave soul!"
He seized her by the arms and shook her as a boy meeting a boy playmate might have done. Her whole being thrilled at his touch. A glorious light of love came into her countenance, but he saw it not.
As he spoke to her he dropped her arms and his glance sprang away to find the sail again. Fixing it, Lavelle could not control his amazement. Emily saw a great seriousness succeed the expression of delight in his face and manner. A chill touched her new-born hope.