"Oh, King!" she cried, "it's come--it's come!"
He did not need to ask what had come. He knew. Leading her gently to a seat he left her, and sitting down on the edge of his bunk, drew on his boots and laced them hurriedly. Then he got up quickly and throwing on his coat, took his hat and turned to Cherry.
Cherry got up from her seat and moved towards the door. She had not spoken while King was completing his preparations to go out, and he knew that she had been weeping silently.
When she got as far as the open doorway she paused and turned to him.
"King--King--" she began, but her voice failed her.
King stepped close to her and took her arm.
She moved towards him, and reaching up placed her hands on his shoulders. King looked down at her face, white and tense in the darkness.
"You must fight, King," she said, with an emphasis that to King seemed almost pathetic.
Her hands crept slowly about his neck, and King, with a suddenness that swept her off her feet, caught her to him and pressed a kiss upon her mouth, a kiss in which all the pent-up passion of weeks found expression at last.
When he released her he stood with his arms about her for a brief moment, trembling before her.
"I don't deserve it," he said, his voice trembling with emotion. "I guess I'll never deserve that--but I wanted to win first--to win for you."
She leaned a little closer to him and then drew herself up and clung tightly with her arms about his neck.
"King," she said, breathlessly, "I love you--I love you!"
Again he put his lips to hers quickly, passionately--and then put her back from him.
Cherry drew her wrap around her and they went out together.
A few minutes' walking brought them within sight of the town, apparently peaceful in the cold grey glimmer of light just breaking in the east. So quiet was it that King began to wonder if the disturbances of which Cherry had been telling him as they came along had not been settled. Then suddenly there arose a shout from the further side of the town, near the river, and King quickened his pace almost to a run, giving Cherry all she could do to keep up. At last his eagerness mastered him, and leaving Cherry with a last warning to go back to Hurley's cottage and not to stir until he should come for her, he left her and went off at a run in the direction of the shouting.
