All there was of her was one dumb prayer for the rider's safety.

Her memory told her that it was no great distance to the road, but her heart cried out that it was so far away,--so far away! When the wood thinned, and they saw before them the dusty strip, pallid and lonely beneath the storm clouds, her heart leaped within her; then grew sick for fear that he had gone by.

When they stood, ankle-deep in the dust, she looked first toward the north, and then to the south.

Nothing moved; all was barren, hushed, and lonely.
"How can we know?
How can we know ?" she cried, and wrung her hands.
MacLean's keen eyes were busily searching for any sign that a horseman had lately passed that way.

At a little distance above them a shallow stream of some width flowed across the way, and to this the Highlander hastened, looked with attention at the road-bed where it emerged from the water, then came back to Audrey with a satisfied air.