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One arm was thrown across the eyes, warding a strong beam which had forced its way through the lower foliage. He tiptoed forward. Io's breast was rising and falling gently in the hardly perceptible rhythm of her breathing.
Back in his room over the station he lighted the lamp and stood before the few books which he kept with him there; among them Io's Bible and "The Undying Voices," with the two pages still joined as her fingers had left them. He was summoning his courage to face what might be the final solution. When he must, she had said, he was to open and read. Well ... he must.
"I knew I should find you here." "Any other woman of my acquaintance would have said, 'Who would have expected to find you here!" commented Miss Van Arsdale. "Yes? I suppose so. But we've never been on that footing, Ban and I." Io's tone was casual; almost careless. "I thought that you were in the country," said Banneker. "So we are.
In this work, Banneker found relief; and in Io's delight in it, a reflected joy that lent fresh impetus to his special genius. The Great Gaines enthusiastically accepted the new sketches for his magazine. Whatever ebbing of fervor from his daily task Banneker might feel, his public was conscious of no change for the worse.
But between the lines of Io's letters, full of womanly pity for Camilla Van Arsdale, of resentment for her thwarted and hopeless longing, Banneker thought to discern a crystallizing resolution.
Io's first telegram from Manzanita went far to appease that. Miss Van Arsdale had suffered a severe shock, but was now on the road to recovery: Io would stay indefinitely: there was no reason for Banneker's coming out for the present: in fact, the patient definitely prohibited it: letter followed. The letter, when it came, forced a cry, as of physical pain, from Banneker's throat.
He lost himself in thought, and when he spoke again it was as much to himself as to the man on the ground. "Suppose I did make a frank statement: you can never trust the papers to get it straight, even if they mean to, which is doubtful. And there's Io's name smeared all over Hel-lo! What's the matter, now?"
He swore softly, and stared at the other. Banneker was annoyed. Evidently the gossip of which Io's girl friend had hinted that other night at Sherry's had obtained wide currency. Before the conversation could go any further, even had it been likely to after that surprising check, one of the actors came over.
"She's coming back," said Io's voice. "No. Don't come nearer. You'll shut off the air. Find me a fan." He ran to the outer room and came back with a palm-leaf. "She wants something," said Io in an agonized half-voice. "She wants it so badly. What is it? Help me, Ban! She can't speak. Look at her eyes so imploring. Is it medicine?... No! Ban, can't you help?"
The people of Egypt were kind to Io, and gave her a home in their sunny land; and by and by the king of Egypt asked her to be his wife, and made her his queen; and she lived a long and happy life in his marble palace on the bank of the Nile. Ages afterward, the great-grandson of the great-grandson of Io's great-grandson broke the chains of Prometheus and set that mighty friend of mankind free.
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