onsiderations he
placed his frenzied resolution to protect Vona. He realized that he must
protect her even from himself--from the shock she would suffer by his
unprefaced appearance, this lover who would come like one risen from the
dead! The scoundrels who came seeking Britt in her home would not be as
terrifying as the visitor who would seem to be a specter--the shade of
the convict whom a mountain had crushed, so said the official reports of
the tragic affair.

The fact that he was rushing to meet in combat three men, armed and
desperate, worried him less than his anguished concern in behalf of the
girl who was unprepared for his advent by hint or warning.

At last he came to the pasture slopes where he was more sure of his
footing. He ran. When he heard the rumble of wheels he stopped in order
to listen, trying to distinguish the location of the sound in the fog,
which made direction uncertain. He knew it must be late. Few vehicles
were moved in Egypt after dark. He suspected that what he heard was the
van.

However, he was puzzled by what he was hearing. Either there were many
vehicles, or else the echoes were playing pranks in the mists
which enwrapped all objects. Under the pall of fog all sounds were
exaggerated. To right and left, near at hand and far away he heard the
rumble of wheels, the creak of whiffletrees, and the plodding feet of
animals.

He heard, too, an occasional, dust-choked bleat or a plaintive lowing.

But a sound that was repeated regularly he could not understand, nor
could he determine the direction from which it came. It was sound
diffused like the fog itself. It was mellowed by distance. He recognized
the notes as the winding of some sort of a horn or trump.

Vaniman's ears were telling him nothing definite. He hurried on down the
hill so that he might make his eyes serve him at closer range. In order
to see what was going on in the highway he was obliged to go close to
the wall which bordered it; though the fog hindered, it helped, for in
the obscurity he was well hidden among the bushes.

First he saw a hayrack go past. Two horses drew it. It was piled high
with household goods, and women and children were on top of the load.
Two cows were hitched on behind. By the time the fog had hidden this
conveyance a wagon of the jigger type rumbled past. It was as heavily
loaded as the hayrack. He heard other vehicles coming--he heard still
others far down the road on their way.

He was u