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Here it is." From his pocket he produced the note and gave it to Aldous. "I'll read it a little later," said Aldous. "The ladies may possibly become anxious about us." He dropped it in his pocket as he thanked Blackton for the trouble he had taken in finding MacDonald. As he climbed into the front seat of the buckboard his eyes met Joanne's.
The cheery good-nights of the Blacktons followed him. And Joanne's good-night was in her eyes following him until he was gone, filled with their entreaty and their fear. A hundred yards distant, where the trail split to lead to the camp of the engineers, there was a lantern on a pole. Here Aldous paused, out of sight of the Blackton bungalow, and in the dim light read again MacDonald's note.
"All you have to do, Miss Gray, is to move that little lever from the side on which it now rests to the opposite side. Are you ready?" In the darkness Joanne's left hand had sought John's. It clung to his tightly. He could feel a little shiver run through her. "Yes," she whispered. "Then if you please press the button!"
The hand moved away, and he was looking into a pair of wide-open, staring, prayerful eyes, and a little cry came to him, and a voice. "John John " He was drifting again, but now he knew that he was alive. He heard movement. He heard voices. They were growing nearer and more distinct. He tried to cry out Joanne's name, and it came in a whispering breath between his lips.
We were a little puzzled by Joanne's account of Verneuil, in which he said that the castle had been completely demolished, but that the donjon existed still. It seems that at Verneuil, as at Argentan, castle and donjon are distinguished; but at Verneuil castle and donjon are not, as at Argentan, separate buildings joined only by a long wall; they stand close together and formed part of one work.
Joanne of 'Fair Play' was splendid without a soul. You have what she lacked. You may not understand, but you have come to perfect what I only partly created." The colour had slowly ebbed from Joanne's face. There was a mysterious darkness in her eyes. "If you were not John Aldous I would strike you," she said. "As it is yes I want you as a friend." She held out her hand.
I was washing the potatoes when I looked up to find a pair of the fiercest, reddest moustaches I have ever seen, ornamenting the doorway. The man had two eyes that seemed about to fall out when he saw me. He popped away like a rabbit and and there's something he left behind in his haste!" Joanne's eyes were flooded with laughter as she nodded at the door. On the sill was a huge quid of tobacco.
Then they, too, stopped, and Aldous freed the girl's hand. With an unexpectedness that was startling they had come upon the grave. Yet not a sound escaped Joanne's lips. Aldous could not see that she was breathing. Less than ten paces from them was the mound, protected by its cairn of stones; and over the stones rose a weather-stained slab in the form of a cross.
Of a sudden the world had become infinitesimally small for him, and all he could see was the soft shimmer of Joanne's hair in the sun, the wonder of her face, the marvellous blue of her eyes and all he could hear was the sweet thrill of her voice when she spoke to him or old Donald, and when, now and then, soft laughter trembled on her lips in the sheer joy of the life that had dawned anew for her this day.
"I don't like to be chased out, but I'll promise not to sleep in the cabin to-night." Mrs. Otto was advancing to meet them. At the door he bade them good-night, and walked on in the direction of the lighted avenue of tents and shacks under the trees. He caught a last look in Joanne's eyes of anxiety and fear.
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