She thought that she was
alone--so far as she thought of herself at all--but the boy sat unseen
and forgotten in a shadowed corner of the chamber. He was gazing at her,
but her gaze never once wandered from the still white face on the
pillow.
The rest of the family were gathered around the hearth in the great room
downstairs. The judge had been summoned from the cabin in which he
slept, and he was now plying Father Orin with questions. There was a cry
of alarmed amazement when the priest told of finding Ruth at Anvil Rock.
Only William Pressley said nothing, and sat perfectly still, with a
sudden stiffening of his bearing. It was not easy for the priest to make
the whole story clear, for he did not understand it quite clearly
himself. But he told as much as he knew of the night's events. And when
he was done, the judge's voice stilled the clamor of the other excited
voices.
"How can the child have known what was going on? Where is she? We must
find out at once how she came to do so wild and strange a thing. What
under heaven could she have been doing there--in such a place, at such a
time? Where is she?" But he went on with another thought, without
waiting for an answer.
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