And then slowly her head was lowered. I waited
breathlessly. I felt her quick breath on my face, and the next
moment her lips had found my lips, hot and dry, and remained
there.
Then she raised her head, saying tremulously:
"That was my soul, and it is the first time it has ever escaped
me."
At the same instant we were startled by the sound of Harry's
voice in the darkness:
"Desiree! Where are you?"
I waited for her to answer, but she was silent, and I called out
to him our direction. A moment later his form appeared at a
distance, and soon he had joined us.
"How about it, old man?" he asked, bending over me.
Then he told us that he had found no water. He had explored two
sides of the cavern, one at a distance of half a mile or more,
and was crossing to find the third when he had called to us.
"But there is little use," he finished gloomily. "The place is
silent as the grave. If there were water we would hear it. I
can't even find an exit except the crevice that let us in."
Desiree's hand was still in mine.
"It may be--perhaps I can go with you," I suggested. But he
would not hear of it, and set out again alone in the opposite
direction to that which he had taken previously.
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