She was
covered with snow. Her long, beautiful hair was loose and disheveled, and
had blown about her like a veil. Her big, dark eyes looked at me
pleadingly, and in them there was a terror such as I had never beheld in
human eyes before. I bent over her, intending to carry her to my cot; but
in another moment she had thrown herself upon the prostrate form of the
man, with her arms about his head, and there burst from her lips the
first sounds that she had uttered. They were not much more intelligible
than the wailing grief of the pine-trees out in the night, but they told
me plainly enough that the man on the floor was dearer to her than life.
"I knelt beside him, and found that he was breathing in a quick, panting
sort of way, and that his wide-open eyes were looking at the woman. Then
I noticed for the first time that his face was cut and bruised, and his
lips were swollen. His coat was loose at the throat, and I could see
livid marks on his neck.
"'I'm all right,' he whispered, struggling for breath, and turning his
eyes to me. 'We should have died--in a few minutes more--if it hadn't
been for the light in your window!'
"The young woman bent down and kissed him, and then she allowed me to
help her to my cot. When I had attended to the young man, and he had
regained strength enough to stand upon his feet, she was asleep. The man
went to her, and dropped upon his knees beside the cot.
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