She came running to
meet him, her two hands out, groping for his. And he dropped rifle and
provision bag and in the half dark his hands found hers and gripped
hard in mighty rejoicing.
"Thank God!" said Betty.
And Jim Kendric's words were like a deep, fervent echo: "Thank God."
CHAPTER XX
IN WHICH A ROCK MOVES, A DISCOVERY IS MADE AND
MORE THAN ONE AVENUE IS OPENED
In the light of Betty's fire Jim hastily poured forth the contents of
his bag and never did a child's eyes at Christmas time shine like
Betty's. She had hungered until she was weak and trembling and now
such articles as Jim displayed were amply sufficient to elicit from her
that little cry of delight. Tortillas and beans, meat and coffee and
sugar and milk--it was a banquet fit for a king and a queen!
"The only thing," cautioned Kendric, "is to go slow. It's a course
dinner, Miss Betty. And first comes a bit of milk."
He ripped open a can with his pocket knife, poured out half of the
thick contents into the silk-water bag and diluted the remainder with
water. Thereafter he watched Betty while she forced herself, at his
bidding, to eat and drink sparingly. And he noted that during his
absence she had been busy working on her wardrobe. Using both the red
garment and the cloak, employing in her task the obsidian knife and
strips of green fiber, she had made for herself a garment which it
would have been hard to classify and yet which was astonishingly
becoming.
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