Page:Resurrection Rock (1920).pdf/75

 lady patted Ethel's hand, said the jam was made from their own raspberries and departed. Ethel had tried not to betray that she wanted to be alone; but her grandmother always understood such things; and Ethel knew she was not offended.

Now that the door was closed, Ethel deserted her tray and went to the window overlooking the lake. Resurrection Rock, except that it was closer, had altered in no aspect from the hour before; not enough time had passed to permit Barney Loutrelle to reach it, so Ethel scanned the ice-sheet and the snow for sign of a moving figure. She made out a dark dot two miles or more away; and dragging her table nearer the window, she watched the dot while she ate.

Slowly it approached the Rock; and Ethel thought of the telescope which her grandfather used in the open season to identify ships passing in the channel for the Straits; it usually hung in a case in a closet off the hall; going to the closet, she found the case in place but the telescope was gone. Returning to her window, she glanced toward the projecting "bow" of three windows in front of her grandfather's room and through the side window, she saw the end of the telescope tube and her grandfather's hand holding it to point toward the speck approaching the Rock. She could not see her grandfather's face, just the end of the telescope and his right hand and forearm steadily supporting the tube, so steadily that his tension amazed her.

She looked quickly to the lake; but she could not see the speck of the man moving out there, as he had vanished into the shadow on the north side of the Rock. She waited for him to climb to the top, straining her eyes to see him on the path by which he must approach