Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/97

 far ahead of us and is riding slowly. I will not tell you how I know this; you shall determine it for yourself."

Virginia lifted her head suddenly; Leyden, watching her, saw her quick intake of breath. She began to put her separate keen senses to work. "A puma," thought Leyden, "… uneasy … disturbed … disquieted." Virginia had been so unawares. Her long hazel eyes narrowed, the delicate nostrils dilated, lips parted, head slightly bent as her sensitive ears quickened. "Ach! what a woman! … what a woman!" thought Leyden, watching her, for at this moment Virginia was beautiful with a tense, lithe, glowing beauty, sensuous in its strong, virile, keen-sensed aliveness, and Leyden was too completely masculine not to feel its influence. The girl's figure, full, strong, supple, matchless in curving outline reminded him of the lithe body of a puma.

Suddenly she laughed. "I have it … I know!" And as she turned to him her manner became suddenly diffident; a school child before its master; prepared, but shy because of this preparation; aquiver through fear lest it fail to justify its knowledge.

"How many senses?" demanded Leyden, in the curt tone of a pedagogue.

"Two."

"Not enough. Which two?"

"Sight and smell."

"The two most infallible," admitted Leyden. "One could hardly have expected that you would catch the sound which I did. What did you get?"

"Count Dessalines uses that French scent, Fleur Tropicale." 87