Page:Son of the wind.djvu/316

RV 298 the moon caught just the edge; but a little way up stream, still in plain sight, the surface ruffled in silver over gravel, for here the boulders stopped for an interval, and a narrow spit of land pointed out into the stream. This went back to an open space a glistening white patch in front of the forest. One dead pine stood up out of it and made a point of shadow on the bright ground.

The smell of water and wet rock rose to his nostrils. A sharp air hovered above the stream.

"Are you cold?" Blanche murmured. Her lips were at his ear so that the words were not audible.

He shook his head.

"You are trembling."

Carron was not conscious of this, and did not believe it. His blood was aflame from heroic exercise. The air was scarcely cold enough for his hot face. His heart played like a drum on his ribs, the pulses in his wrists hammered, he felt the quick throb in his temples. His breath came short. He tried to fill his lungs. He stretched his feet to get a less cramped position, and a stone slipped in the bottom of the cave. He held his breath, fearful lest it go reverberating in the depths, frightening silence. Blanche laid her hand warningly on his arm. Silence, that large, sensitive, brittle depth inclosing them, they were both of a mind to keep absolute. It