The Argosy — page 334: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

In the Mist, 319 We took off our coats and laid her down uponthem. I supported her head on my knee while he tenderly chafed her hands. “Are we too late?” he faltered, looking up at me with a face hardly less white than hers. ‘No, she has only fainted. Look, she is reviving already.” Even as I spoke she stirred uneasily, drew a deep breath, and un- closed her eyes. ‘They wandered round the unfamiliar place, then rested on her lover, who knelt at her side, watching her with breath- less anxiety. The change in her face was something to remember. Light, life and, colour rushed back to it in a sudden tide of joy that trans- figured every feature. “Noel, Noel !” The next moment his strong arms were round her, and his lips pressed to hers. “My love—my darling!” he whispered between his passionate kisses. ‘“‘ How can I thank heaven enough for its mercy in giving you back to me almost from the grave !” “Tt would indeed have been my grave, but for you,” Winnie faltered. His face darkened witha look of pain and remorse. “If you knew what I have suffered since yesterday! the agony of self- reproach.” “My poor Noel, your face speaks for you,” she interrupted, with a faint smile. ‘‘ But you need not have reproached yourself; it was a pure accident.” “ Are you badly hurt, my darling?” he asked anxiously. ‘‘T am a little bruised and stiff—nothing more.” “You escaped without injury from that terrible fall,” I exclaimed. “Tt seems a miracle.” “Tt was indeed little short of one,” she answered gravely. ‘Let me try to tell you how it happened. After I fell from the cliff—was it only yesterday? it seems so long ago—I must have been uncon- scious for some time. When I recovered I found myself lying on a projecting ledge of rock, my dress entangled in a straggling brier. Though not injured I was terribly bruised and shaken, and the ledge was so narrow that I dared not stir for fear of falling again. I cried for help, but my voice was drowned in the noise of the breakers, and the mist hid me from your sight. As I looked up despairingly, thinking every moment would be my last, I noticed a hollow in the cliff just above me, like the mouth of a natural cavern, half-hidden by brambles and furze-bushes. ‘The thought flashed across me that it must be the entrance to the old ‘‘ Smugglers’ Passage,” and that if I could creep into it I should be safe till you found me. With some difficulty, for the opening was only just large enough to admit me, I succeeded, disturbing a whole colony of sea-gulls who had built their nests inside. But another danger threatened me, which I’ could not COMIC OOO €5) (CO)