FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181  
182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   >>  
and strained when he said to Aldous: "I guess we'll make it to-morrow, Johnny--jus' about as the sun's going down." They camped early, and Aldous rolled himself in his blanket when Joanne extinguished the candle in her tent. He found that he could not sleep, and he relieved MacDonald at eleven o'clock. "Get all the rest you can, Mac," he urged. "There may be doings to-morrow--at about sundown." There was but little moonlight now, but the stars were clear. He lighted his pipe, and with his rifle in the crook of his arm he walked slowly up and down over a hundred-yard stretch of the narrow plain in which they had camped. That night they had built their fire beside a fallen log, which was now a glowing mass without flame. Finally he sat down with his back to a rock fifty paces from Joanne's tepee. It was a splendid night. The air was cool and sweet. He leaned back until his head rested against the rock, and there fell upon him the fatal temptation to close his eyes and snatch a few minutes of the slumber which had not come to him during the early hours of the night. He was in a doze, oblivious to movement and the softer sounds of the night, when a cry pierced the struggling consciousness of his brain like the sting of a dart. In an instant he was on his feet. In the red glow of the log stood Joanne in her long white night robe. She seemed to be swaying when he first saw her. Her hands were clutched at her bosom, and she was staring--staring out into the night beyond the burning log, and in her face was a look of terror. He sprang toward her, and out of the gloom beyond her rushed Donald MacDonald. With a cry she turned to Aldous and flung herself shivering and half-sobbing into his arms. Gray-faced, his eyes burning like the smouldering coals in the fire, Donald MacDonald stood a step behind them, his long rifle in his hands. "What is it?" cried Aldous. "What has frightened you, Joanne?" She was shuddering against his breast. "It--it must have been a dream," she said. "It--it frightened me. But it was so terrible, and I'm--I'm sorry, John. I didn't know what I was doing." "What was it, dear?" insisted Aldous. MacDonald had drawn very close. Joanne raised her head. "Please let me go back to bed, John. It was only a dream, and I'll tell it to you in the morning, when there's sunshine--and day." Something in MacDonald's tense, listening attitude caught Aldous' eyes. "What was the dream?" he urged
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181  
182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   >>  



Top keywords:

Aldous

 

Joanne

 
MacDonald
 

frightened

 
burning
 

staring

 

Donald

 
morrow
 

camped

 

sunshine


clutched

 

morning

 

Please

 
terror
 

attitude

 

instant

 
caught
 

listening

 

sprang

 

Something


swaying
 

shuddering

 
breast
 
terrible
 

smouldering

 
turned
 

insisted

 

raised

 

rushed

 

shivering


sobbing

 

rested

 

doings

 
sundown
 

moonlight

 

slowly

 

hundred

 

walked

 

lighted

 

eleven


Johnny

 

strained

 
rolled
 

relieved

 

blanket

 

extinguished

 

candle

 

stretch

 

snatch

 
minutes