They had gained the main path before the moon deserted them, and the first of the gusty showers sent them hurrying along in shivering impatience for the open fires of homes.
"We'll find that pair of short sports toasting their toes and giving us the laugh," predicted Bob, tramping along, a hand on Ruth's arm now.
Ruth was wearing his huge college sweater over her silk one and felt indefinably less adventurous and independent than on her upward trip. Bob seemed very stable, very desirable, as she stumbled wearily on. She wasn't quite sure what she had wanted to gain time for, that afternoon. Already the barriers of custom and common-sense were raising their solid heads.
And Bob was romance, too. It was silly to be unready for surrender. She realized that if she lost him. . . .
At the Lodge she gave him back a quick look that set him astir.
"Hold on," he called as she broke from him to follow her mother.
The cars from the Martin house party had been left at the Lodge in readiness and with perfunctory warmth of farewells the tired mountaineers were hastening either to the Lodge or the motors.
"Here's Johnny's car," he sung out. "He's probably inside----" and Bob swung hastily after Ruth and her mother.
He was up the steps beside them and opened the door into the wide hall where a group was lingering about the open fire.
A glance told them Johnny Byrd was not of the company. Bob and Ruth went to the door of the music room. It was deserted. Mrs. Blair went swiftly to the clerk's desk at the side entrance.
She came back, looking upset. Maria Angelina had not returned, to the clerk's knowledge. No one had telephoned any news.
"I'll go up and make sure," offered Ruth, and sped up the stairs only to return in a few minutes with a face of dawning excitement.
"They must be lost!" she announced in a voice that drew instant attention.
"Did you look to see if her things were there?" said her mother in an agitated undertone.
Bob Martin met her glance with swift intelligence.
"Johnny's car is out there," he told them. "It isn't _that_--they are simply lost, as Ruth says. Wait--I must tell them before they get away," and he hurried out into the increasing downpour.
Mrs. Blair turned on her daughter a face of pale misgiving.