Part 23 (1/2)

The girl looked at the dwarf keenly.

”Pepin Quesnelle,” she said, ”you have been a good, dear friend to me, and now you have lost your life in trying to save mine--”

”Pardon, Mam'selle, my dear, what is it you know? You say we go for to meet the death. How you know that, eh?

What?”

Despite the tragedy of the situation, and the great pity for her that filled his heart, he would not have been Pepin had he not posed as the _pet.i.t maitre_ in this the hour of the shadow.

She pointed to the great black archway looming up ahead under which their canoe must shoot in another minute. It was the dread subterranean pa.s.sage, which meant for them the end of all things. It was a tragic ending to all her hopes and dreams, the trials and the triumphs of her young life. It was, indeed, bitter to think that just when love, the crowning experience of womanhood, had come to her, its sweetness should have been untasted. Even the lover's kiss--that seal upon the compact of souls--had been denied her. Her fate had been a hard one, but Dorothy was no fair-weather Christian. Was it not a great triumph that in the dark end she should have bowed to the higher will, and been strong? And her love, if it had experienced no earthly close, might it not live again in the mysterious Hereafter? She thanked G.o.d for the comfort of the thought.

She had been face to face with death before, but now here surely was the end. She would be brave and true to all that was best and truest in her, and she felt that somehow those who were left behind must know.

The dwarf faced her, and his hands were clasped as in prayer. His face was transfigured. There was no fear there--only a look of trust in a higher power, and of compa.s.sion.

”Pepin,” cried Dorothy, ”you have been a good, dear friend to me, and I want to thank you before--”

”Bah !” interrupted the dwarf. ”What foolishness is it you will talk about thanks! But, my dear, I will say this to you now, although you are a woman, there is no one in this wide world--save, of course, the good mother--that I would more gladly have laid down my life to serve than you! I am sure your Pasmore would forgive me if he heard that Good-bye, my dear child, and if it is the Lord's will that together we go to knock at the gates of the great Beyond, then I will thank Heaven that I have been sent in such good company. Now, let us thank the good G.o.d that He has put the love of Him in our hearts.”

And then the darkness swallowed them up.

Back from the land of dreams and shadows--back from the Valley of the Shadow and the realms of unconsciousness.

Dorothy opened her eyes. At first she could see nothing.