But she did not change her position, and she
continued to gaze up the long stretch of line as though waiting for
something.
"What on earth is she doing?" whispered Billy. "There are no wind-flowers
there."
Scott slipped quietly to the ground. "You wait here!" he said. "Hold my
animal, will you?"
He left the bridge, retracing his steps, and climbed a railing that
fenced the wood. In a moment he disappeared among the trees, and Billy
was left to watch and listen in unaccountable suspense.
The morning was dull, and a desolate wind moaned among the bare
tree-tops. He shivered a little. There was something uncanny in the
atmosphere, something that was evil. He kept his eyes upon Dinah, but she
was a considerable distance away, and he could not see that she stirred
so much as a finger. He wondered how long it would take Scott to reach
her, and began to wish ardently that he had been allowed to go instead.
The man was lame and he was sure that he could have covered the distance
in half the time.
And then while he waited and watched, suddenly there came a distant
drumming that told of an approaching train.
"The Northern express!" he said aloud.
Many a time had he stood on the bridge to see it flash and thunder below
him. The sound of its approach had always filled him with a kind of
ecstasy before, but now--to-day--it sent another feeling through him,--a
sudden, wild dart of unutterable dread.
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