It was
hard to keep anything in sight. He was a strong swimmer, but his full
strength had not come back, and the fury of the waves was swirling trees
like straws.
After that one involuntary appeal, Ruth was silent. Her heart almost
stopped beating as she realized what her cry had done. A woman's mind
acts with marvellous quickness when all she loves is at stake. As in a
lightning flash she knew that she had sent her lover to risk his life
for her foster-father, without knowing what she did. What she would have
done had there been time to hesitate she could not tell, dared not
think. It must have been a bitter choice, this risking of her lover's
life against the certainty of her father's death. But now she realized
nothing, felt nothing, except that the desperate die was cast. She did
not notice that the others followed as she flew after Paul to the
river's very brink. The earth had ceased quivering, but the shores were
still crumbling under the crushing blows of the maddened waves. The
thick, dark water coiled unheeded about her feet, as she stood silent,
straining her eyes after her lover as he swam toward that silver head
which still rose and fell with the waves.
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