"I can not study," Honor had said to Stephen when he made some allusion to their morning hours. She said it simply, without excuse or disguise; he did not ask her again.
The expedition was to start on Monday night. The whole village, in the mean time, had been carefully intrusted with the secret that it was to go on Tuesday. But on Sunday evening Honor discovered that before midnight the hounds were to be let slip. The very soldiers themselves did not know it. How did the girl learn it, then? She divined it from some indefinable signs in Royce. Even Adelaide did not suspect it; and Stephen saw only the girl's own restlessness. She slipped away like a ghost--so like one that Stephen himself did not see her go. He followed her, however, almost immediately; it was too late for her to go through the village alone. He was some distance behind her. To his surprise, she did not go homeward, but walked rapidly down toward the river-road. There was fickle moonlight now and then; he dropped still farther behind, and followed her, full of conjecture, which was not so much curiosity as pain. It was still early in the evening, yet too late for her to be out there on the river-road alone. This innocent young girl--this child--where, where was she going? He let her walk on for a mile, and then he made up his mind that he must stop her. They were far beyond the houses now, and the road was lonely and wild; the roar of the river over its broad, rock-dotted, uneven bed, hid the sound of his footsteps as he climbed up the steep bank, ran forward, and came down into the road in advance of her.
"Where are you going, Miss Honor?" he said, showing himself, and speaking quietly.
She started back, and gasped out his name.
"Yes, it is I," he answered, "Stephen Wainwright. I am alone; you need not be frightened."
She came close up to him and took his hand.
"Do not stop me," she said entreatingly. "I am on an errand of life and death!"
"Will you betray me, then?" she said, in an agonized tone.
"No; but you will tell me what it is, and I will go for you."
"You do not know; and, besides--you would not."
"I will do anything you ask me to do," said Stephen.
"But--but it is an enormous thing you are doing for me."