xultation, of hope
that reached beyond the laws of men--and then he turned toward the
little cabin, where through the thickness of sodden night the tiny
window was glowing yellow with candle-light.

CHAPTER XIX

To the cabin Kent groped his way, and knocked, and it was Marette who
opened the door for him and stepped back for him to enter. Like a great
wet dog he came in, doubling until his hands almost touched the floor.
He sensed the incongruity of it, the misplacement of his overgrown body
in this playhouse thing, and he grinned through the trickles of wet
that ran down his face, and tried to see. Marette had taken off her
turban and rain-coat, and she, too, stooped low in the four-feet space
of the cabin--but not so ridiculously low as Kent. He dropped on his
knees again. And then he saw that in the tiny stove a fire was burning.
The crackle of it rose above the beat of the rain on the roof, and the
air was already mellowing with the warmth of it. He looked at Marette.
Her wet hair was still clinging to her face, her feet and arms and part
of her body were wet; but her eyes were shining, and she was smiling at
him. She seemed to him, in this moment, like a child that was glad it
had found refuge. He had thought that the terror of the night would
show in her face, but it was gone. She was not thinking of the thunder
and the lightning, the black trail, or of Kedsty lying dead in his
bungalow. She was thinking of him.

He laughed outright. It was a joyous, thrilling thing, this black night
with the storm over their heads and the roll of the great river under
them--they two--alone--in this cockleshell cabin that was not high
enough to stand in and scarcely big enough in any direction to turn
round in. The snug cheer of it, the warmth of the fire beginning to
reach their chilled bodies, and the inspiring crackle of the birch in
the little stove filled Kent, for a space, with other thoughts than
those of the world they were leaving. And Marette, whose eyes and lips
were smiling at him softly in the candle-glow, seemed also to have
forgotten. It was the little window that brought them back to the
tragedy of their flight. Kent visioned it as it must look from the
shore--a telltale blotch of light traveling through the darkness. There
were occasional cabins for several miles below the Landing, and eyes
turned riverward in the storm might see it. He made his way to the
window and fastened his slicker over it.

"We