Page:Vance--The trey o hearts.djvu/247

Rh sessed by determination not to desert her in this hour of greatest extremity, though he died of the trying.

In the end he stumbled blindly down a decline, and was conscious that he had in some way found shelter from the full force of the wind. He staggered on another yard or two, and blundered into a rough-ribbed wall of rock, whose lee it was that had created this scanty oasis of shelter from the fury that raged through the world.

He thought to rest there for a time, until the storm had spent its greatest strength; but as he laid his shoulder gratefully against the rock and scrubbed the dust from his smarting eyes, he saw what he at first conceived to bean hallucination—Judith Trine standing within a yard of him, alive, strong, free, completely mistress of herself, in no way needing the help of his generous heart and hand.

He stared incredulously, saw her open her mouth to utter a wondering cry that was nearly inaudible. Her hand fell upon his arm with the weight of unquestionable reality. Then he heard words of understanding and of gratitude:

"Alan! You came to me! You followed me, through all this"

The bitter irony of this outcome to all his labourings and sufferings ate like an acid at his heart.

He threw off her hand with a bitter laugh—that