But when Cinders heard it also, and raised his head to growl, she suffered herself to be convinced.

He really was coming at last.
His progress was very slow, maddeningly slow it seemed to Chris.

She watched eagerly for the first sign of light from his lantern, but she watched in vain.

No faintest ray came to illumine the darkness.

Surely it was he; it could be none other! Nearer and nearer came the footsteps, slow and groping.