"I'll say we can wait like this. Watch me."
"Well, we cannot go," said Johnny mimicking. "We'd get nowhere if we did try. We'd just go round and round. Our best bet is to stay on this peak and signal. Believe me, I'm not going to stir for one long while."
Again the fear of tears choked back the words that rushed upon her. She told herself that she must not be weak and frantic and make a scene. . . . Men abhorred scenes. And it would not help. It would only anger him. He was tired now. He was not thinking of her. He had not realized the situation.
Presently he would realize. . . . And, anyway, he was there with her, he would take care of her, protect her from the tongues of gossip.
Slowly Johnny smoked two cigarettes, then he rose and gathered sticks for a fire. It burned briskly, its swift flame throwing a glowing circle about them and extinguishing the rest of the world.
There had been no sunset. A bank of clouds had swallowed the last vestige of ruddy light. The mountain peaks darkened. It was growing night.
"We'll wait for moonlight," said Johnny Byrd.
But at that Maria Angelina's eyes came away from those mountains which she was unremittingly watching for an answering fire and fixed themselves upon his face in startled horror.
"Moonlight!" she gasped. "But no--no! We must not wait any more. It is too late now. We must get down as soon as we can."
"Why, you little baby!" Johnny Byrd moved nearer to her. "What you 'fraid of, Ri-Ri? We can't help how late it is, can we?"
He put an arm about her and drew her gently close, and because she was so tired and frightened and upset Maria Angelina could no longer resist the tears that came blinding her eyes.
"You little baby!" said Johnny again softly, and suddenly she felt his kiss upon her cheek.
"Poor little Ri-Ri! Poor tired little girl!"
"Oh, you must not. Signor, you must not."
"That's better. . . . All right, I'll be good, Ri-Ri. Just sit still. And I'll be good."
But firmly he kept his arm about her and soon her tense little figure relaxed in that strong clasp. She was not frightened, as last night at the dance, she felt utterly forlorn and comforted by his strength.
They sat very still, unspeaking in that silent embrace, and about them it grew colder and darker while the sky seemed to grow thinner and grayer and clear. And at last against the pallor of the sky, mountain after mountain lifted itself out of the shadowy cloud mass, and peak after peak defined itself, stretching on and on like an army of giants.