CHAPTER XIII
THE SECOND WAYFARER RECEIVES TWO VISITORS AT MIDNIGHT
The hour for the midday dinner approached and there was no sign of
Miss Thackeray's return from the woods. Barnes sat for two
exasperating hours on the porch and listened to the confident,
flamboyant oratory of Mr. Lyndon Rushcroft. His gaze constantly swept
the line of trees, and there were times when he failed to hear a word
in whole sentences that rolled from the lips of the actor. He was
beginning to feel acutely uneasy, when suddenly her figure issued from
the woods at a point just above the Tavern. Instead of striking out at
once across the meadow, she stopped and for as long as three or four
minutes appeared to be carrying on a conversation with some invisible
person among the trees she had just left behind. Then she waved her
hand and turned her steps homeward. A bent old man came out of the
woods and stood watching her progress across the open stretch. She had
less than two hundred yards to traverse between the woods and the
fence opposite the Tavern. The old man remained where he was until she
reached the fence and prepared to mount it. Then, as Barnes ran down
from the porch and across the road to assist her over the fence, he
whirled about and disappeared.
Pages:
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230