Page:The traitor; a story of the fall of the invisible empire (IA traitorstoryoffa00dixo).pdf/270

 lanterns in that gloomy old room below. I've a thousand things to tell you. Life will be too short a time in which to tell it all. I hope you've been very lonely and hungry for me to come?"

"I must confess, my heart began to fail me once or twice," she said seriously, while he felt her hand trembling.

He stooped to light a lantern, and she caught his arm.

"Wait, not yet—the moon is shining brightly—we don't need it."

"But you'll stumble on those dark stairs in the corridor."

"No matter, wait," she urged nervously; "I'll hold your arm—you know the way."

"Yes, I know the way," he laughed. "Come then, your slightest whim is law."

He drew her little hand through his arm and picking his steps carefully, led her down through the tangled débris and along the dark corridor without once stumbling, the timid figure clinging close to his side.

"You see a revolutionist soon learns to find his way in the dark without a light," he said, as they emerged into the kitchen whose wide space was lighted by the moonbeams streaming through the windows.

He released her arm, placed the lantern and a