Page:Walpole--portrait of man with red hair.djvu/245



He caught their hands in his. He was breathless. He sank down on the stone beside them:

"Give me a minute.... I'm done. Lord! this filthy fog.... Where haven't I been" He panted, staring up at them with wide distracted eyes.

"Do you realized I've failed. It's no use our crossing in that boat now even if we could find it. We've missed that train. We're done."

"Nonsense," Harkness broke in. "Why, man, what's happened to you? This isn't like you to lose your courage. We're not done or anything like it. In the first place we're all together again. That's something in a fog like this. Besides so long as we stick together we're out of their power. They can't force us, all of us, back into that house again. So long as we're out of that house we're safe."

"Oh, are we" said Dunbar. "Little you know that man. I tell you we're not safe—or Hesther's not safe—until we're at least a hundred miles away. But forgive me," he looked up at them both, smiling, "you're quite right, Harkness. I haven't any right to talk like this. But you don't know what a time I've had in that fog."

"I had a little bit of a time myself," said Harkness.

"Well in the first place," went on Dunbar, "I