"
"Punishment!" broke scornfully from Harper's lips.
She hushed him with a look before which even he stood aghast.
"You will only waste words," she cried. "If he says punishment, I may
expect punishment." And turning back to Ransom, in a burst of longing and
passion, she raised her eyes to him again, saying, "You do not forgive
because you do not realize my danger. But you will realize it when I am
gone."
Ransom, under a sudden releasement of the tension of doubt and awe which
had hitherto held him speechless, gave her one wild stare, then caught
her to his breast.
She uttered a happy sigh.
"Ah!" she murmured in the soft ecstasy and boundless relief of the
moment, "how I have learned to love you during the fears and agonies
of this awful week."
"And I you," was the whispered answer. "Too deeply," he impetuously added
in louder tones, "to let any harm come to you now."
She smiled; but desperation fought with love in that smile. Gently
releasing herself, she cast another glance at Hazen, upon whose gray
and distorted countenance there had settled a great gloom, and
passionately exclaimed:
"Had law or love been able to interfere with the judgment of our Chief, I
should not have been driven into the herculean task of deceiving you and
the whole world as to my real identity." Then with slowly drooping head,
and the manner of one who has heard his doom pronounced, she hoarsely
whispered; "The death-mark was scrawled upon my door last night.
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