A vision suddenly illumined her own soul, and she forgot her anxiety over Jim's queer moods.
Deeper and deeper grew the shadows of crag, gorge, and primeval forest. The speedometer on the foot-board registered five miles from the Mount Mitchell house. They had passed two cabins by the way, and still no sign of the third.
“Why couldn't she tell us how many miles, I'd like to know?” Jim grumbled.
“It's the way of the mountain folk. They're noncommittal on distances.”
He stopped the car and lighted the lamps.
“Going to be dark in a minute,” he said. “But I like this place,” he added.
He picked his way with care over the narrow road. They crossed the little stream they were trailing, and the car crawled over the rocks along the banks at a snail's pace.
An owl called from a dead tree-top silhouetted against an open space of sky ahead.
“Must be a clearing there,” Jim muttered.
He stopped the car and listened for the sounds of life about a house.
A vast, brooding silence filled the world. A wolf howled from the edge of a distant crag somewhere overhead.
“For God's sake!” Jim shivered. “What was that?”
“Only a mountain wolf crying for company.”
“A few--harmless, timid, lonesome fellows. It makes me sorry for them when I hear one.”
“Great country! I like it!” Jim responded.
Again she wondered why. What a queer mixture of strength and mystery--this man she had married!
He started the car, turned a bend in the road, and squarely in front, not more than a hundred yards away, gleamed a light in a cabin window--four tiny panes of glass.
“By Geeminy, we come near stopping in the front yard without knowing it!” he exclaimed. “Didn't we?”
“I'm glad she's at home!” Mary exclaimed. “The light shines with a friendly glow in these deep shadows.”
“All right when you get used to 'em--safer than daylight.”
Again her heart beat at his queer speech. She shivered at the thought of this uncanny trait of character so suddenly developed today. She made an effort to throw off her depression. It would vanish with the sun tomorrow morning.
He picked his way carefully among the trees and stopped in front of the cabin door. The little house sat back from the road a hundred feet or more.
A sudden crash inside, and the light went out. He waited a moment for it to come back.