"She sent
down to me, saying how she had taken a cup of milk and gone to ride on
the beach, and I was to come up and look after the girls. But look here,
sir"--eagerly--"it's a good thing, I'm thinking, for her spirits are
high when she rides in fine weather, and she's more ready for games and
plays, and thinking of pleasure. She's gone on the west shore, round by
the light, for O'Shea he looked at the tracks. Do you get your horse
and ride after, where you see her tracks in the sand."
Caius went. He mounted his horse and rode down upon the western shore.
He found the track, and galloped upon it. The tide was low; the ice was
far from shore; the highway, smoothed by the waves, was firm and good.
Caius galloped to the end of the island where the light was, where the
sealing vessels lay round the base of the lighthouse, and out upon the
dune, and still the print of her horse's feet went on in front of him.
It was not the first time that he and she had been upon the dune
together.
A mile, two miles, three; he rode at an easy pace, for now he knew that
he could not miss the rider before him. He watched the surf break gently
on the broad shallow reach of sand-ridges that lay between him and the
floating ice. And when he had ridden so far he was not the same man as
when he mounted his horse, or at least, his own soul, of which man has
hardly permanent possession, had returned to him.
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