Peering out, she could see him standing on the
ground below, his arms held out towards her.
"Jump!" he called.
But she shrank from the drop into the darkness.
"I can't!" she sobbed helplessly. "I can't!"
He approached a step nearer, and the light from some torch close at hand
flashed onto his uplifted face. She could see it clearly, tense and set,
the blue eyes blazing.
"God in heaven!" he cried furiously. "Do what I tell you. _Jump_!"
The fierce, imperative command startled her into action, and she jumped
blindly, recklessly, out into the night. There was one endless moment of
uncertainty, and then she felt herself caught by arms like steel and set
gently upon the ground.
"You little fool!" he said thickly. He was breathing heavily as though
he had been running; she could feel his chest heave as, for an instant,
he held her pressed against him.
He released her almost immediately, and taking her by the arm, led her to
the embankment, where he stripped off his overcoat and wrapped it about
her. But she was hardly conscious of what he was doing, for suddenly
everything seemed to be spinning round her. The lights of the torches
bobbed up and down in a confused blur of twinkling stars, the sound of
voices and the trampling of feet came faintly to her ears as from a great
way off, while the grim, black bulk of the piled-up coaches of the train
seemed to lean nearer and nearer, until finally it swooped down on top of
her and she sank into a sea of impenetrable darkness.
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