.

The rush of the oncoming express dinned in his ears. It was close now,
and suddenly--suddenly as a darting bird--Dinah was on her feet. Billy
found his voice in a hoarse, croaking cry, but almost ere it left his
lips he saw Scott leap into view and run down the bank.

By what force of will he made his presence known Billy never afterwards
could conjecture. No sound could have been audible above the clamour of
the train. Yet by some means--some electric battery of the mind--he made
the girl below aware of him. On the very verge of the precipice she
stopped, stood poised for a moment, then turned herself back and saw
him....

The train thundered by, shaking the ground beneath their feet, and rushed
under the bridge. The whole embankment was blotted out in white smoke,
and Billy reeled back against the horse he held.

"By Jove!" he whispered shakily. "By--Jove! What a ghastly fright!"

He wiped his forehead with a trembling hand, and led the animal away from
the bridge. Somehow he was feeling very sick--too sick to look any
longer, albeit the danger was past.

The smoke cleared from the embankment, and two figures were left facing
one another on the grassy slope. Neither of them spoke a word. It was as
if they were waiting for some sign. Scott was panting, but Dinah did not
seem to be breathing at all. She stood there tense and silent, terribly
white, her eyes burning like stars.

The last sound of the train died away in the distance, and then, such was
their utter stillness, from the thorn-bush close to them a thrush
suddenly thrilled into song. The soft notes fell balmlike into that awful
silence and turned it into sweetest music.

Scott moved at last, and at once the bird ceased. It was as if an angel
had flown across the heaven with a silver flute of purest melody and
passed again into the unknown.

He came to Dinah. "My dear," he said, and his voice was slightly shaky,
"you shouldn't be here."

She stood before him, pillar-like, her two hands clenched against her
sides. Her lips were quite livid. They moved soundlessly for several
seconds before she spoke. "I--was waiting--for the express."

Her voice was flat and emotionless. It sounded almost as if she were
talking in her sleep. And strangely it was that that shocked Scott even
more than her appearance. Dinah's voice had always held countless
inflections, little notes gay or sad like the trill of a robin. This was
the voice of a woman in whom the ver