“Five hours! and no shelter in sight save the impossible one of the station itself.  How could I pass away that time!  How endure the cold and fatigue?  By pacing to and fro in the road?  I tried it, resolutely tried it, for an hour, then a new terror, a new suspense, gripped me, and I discovered that I could never live through the hours; never, in fact, take the train when it came without knowing what had happened in Boone and whether the feint on which I relied had achieved its purpose.  There was time to steal back, time to see and hear what would satisfy me of my own safety; and then to have some purpose in my movement!  How much better than this miserable pacing back and forth just to start the stagnating blood and make the lagging moments endurable!

“So I turned again toward Boone.  I was not in the mood to fear darkness or any encounter save one, and experienced hesitation only when I found myself reapproaching the bridge.  Shadows which had protected me until now failed me there, and it was with caution I finally advanced and emerged upon the open spot where the road crossed the river.  But even this was not needed.  In the wide stretch before me cut by the inky stream, I saw no signs of life, and it was not till I was on the bridge itself that I discerned in the black hollows below the glint of a lantern, lighting up the bending forms of two or three men who were dragging at something which heaved under their hands with the pull of the stream.

“It was a sight which has never left me, but one which gave wings to my feet that night and sent me flying on till a fork in the road brought me to a standstill.  To the left lay the hotel.  I could see its windows glimmering with faint lights, while, away to the right, there broke upon me from the hillside a solitary sparkle; but this sparkle came from the house where, but for the letter hidden in my heart, I should be sitting at this moment before my own fireside.

“What moved me?  God knows.  It may have been duty; it may have been curiosity; it may have been only dread to know the worst and know it at once; but seeing that single gleam I began to move toward it, and, before I was aware, I had reached the house, edged up to its unshaded window and taken a frightened look within.

“I was prepared and yet unprepared for what I saw.  Within, standing alone, with garments dripping, gazing in frenzy at a slip of paper which clung wet about his hand, stood my husband.  My words to him!  I could see it in his eyes and the desperation which lit up all his features.

“Drawing back in terror from the road, I watched him fling that letter of from his fingers as he would a biting snake, and, striding to a cupboard high up on the wall, take down something I could not see and did not guess at till the sharp sound of a pistol-shot cleft my ear, and I beheld him fall face downward on the carpet of fresh autumn leaves with which he had hidden the bare floor in expectation of his bride.