Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/367

 opened the door she heard the horses stamping impatiently with surprise at being called upon on this dark rainy night. Quickly she mounted one and led the other to the place of meeting. Bennet was there to meet her. Without a word he mounted and the two started off at a trot into the dark, only the white ribbon of sandy road to guide them. As they started off, horses side by side, Lida reached over and placed her hand in his. He grasped it tenderly.

"Riding off into the dark with me, My Heart," he murmured.

She pressed his in return, "Not into the dark, but through the dark into light, Truman. For there's the light of tomorrow ahead."

"God keep it always light ahead," he prayed fervently.

Thus they traveled for more than two hours, sometimes pausing to listen to see if they were being followed. They heard nothing, however, save the screech of an owl from time to time as his slumbers were despoiled by the hoof sounds, or the bay of a distant hound. At last they reached Carter's. Lida knew the place by the wide stretch of garden in front of it and the scale house at the roadside where cotton and grain were weighed at the end of each day's harvest. Carter was known as the greatest grower of oats and wheat in the county.

"Father Buntin's church is not far from here, Dear."

"I hope he'll be in."

"He'll most likely be in on a night like this."

A few miles further on they passed the graveyard of