For a moment he was blinded by his
sudden dash from the light of day into the gloom of the cabin, and he
saw only that a figure was standing there, as still as death. His
pistol dropped to the floor. He stretched out his arms, and his voice
sobbed in its entreaty as he whispered the girl's name. In response to
that whisper came a low, glad cry, and Marion lay trembling on his
breast.
"I have come back for you!" he breathed.
He felt her heart beating against him. He pressed her closer, and her
arms slipped about his neck.
"I have come back for you!"
He was almost crying, like a boy, in his happiness.
"I love you, I love you--"
He felt the warm touch of her lips.
"You will go with me?"
"If you want me," she whispered. "If you want me--after you know--what I
am--"
She shuddered against his breast, and he raised her face between his two
hands and kissed her until she drew away from him, crying softly.
[Illustration: Marion]
"You must wait--you must wait!"
He saw now in her face an agony that appalled him. He would have gone to
her again, but there came loud voices from the forest, and recovering
his pistol he sprang to the door. Half a hundred paces away were Obadiah
and the king's sheriffs. They had stopped and the councilor was
expostulating excitedly with the men, evidently trying to keep them from
the cabin. Suddenly one of the three broke past him and ran swiftly
toward the open door, and with a shriek of warning to Nathaniel the old
councilor drew a pistol and fired point blank in the sheriff's back.
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