he grinned
a welcome.

"A beastly mob!" he exclaimed, as he gripped his friend's hand. "I'm sorry
I couldn't bring my wife nearer than the back platform."

Aldous turned to Joanne. He was still half in a daze. His heart was choking
him with its swift and excited beating. Even as he introduced her to
Blackton the voice kept crying in his brain that she had expected to find
some one in this crowd whom she knew. For a space it was as if the Joanne
whom he had known had slipped away from him. She had told him about the
grave, but this other she had kept from him. Something that was almost
anger surged up in him. His face bore marks of the strain as he watched her
greet Blackton. In an instant, it seemed to him, she had regained a part of
her composure. Blackton saw nothing but the haggard lines about her eyes
and the deep pallor in her face, which he ascribed to fatigue.

"You're tired, Miss Gray," he said. "It's a killing ride up from Miette
these days. If we can get through this mob we'll have supper within fifteen
minutes!"

With a word to Aldous he began worming his long, lean body ahead of them.
An instant Joanne's face was very close to Aldous', so close that he felt
her breath, and a tendril of her hair touched his lips. In that instant her
eyes looked into his steadily, and he felt rush over him a sudden shame. If
she was seeking and expecting, it was to him more than ever that she was
now looking for protection. The haunting trouble in her eyes, their
entreaty, their shining faith in him told him that, and he was glad that
she had not seen his sudden fear and suspicion. She clung more closely to
him as they followed Blackton. Her little fingers held his arm as if she
were afraid some force might tear him from her. He saw that she was looking
quickly at the faces about them with that same questing mystery in her
search.

At the thin outer edge of the crowd Blackton dropped back beside them. A
few steps more and they came to the end of the platform, where a buckboard
was waiting in the dim light of one of the station lamps. Blackton
introduced Joanne, and assisted her into the seat beside his wife.

"We'll leave you ladies to become acquainted while we rustle the baggage,"
he said. "Got the checks, Aldous?"

Joanne had given Aldous two checks on the train, and he handed them to
Blackton. Together they made their way to the baggage-room.

"Thought Miss Gray would have some luggage, so I had one of my men come