None was
steadier of hand or more expert than she. Her face was flushed as she
bent over the fire and her sleeves were rolled back, showing her strong
white arms. Her lips were compressed, but as the bullets shining like
silver dropped from the mold they would part now and then in a slight
smile. She too had in her the spirit of warlike ancestors and it was
aroused now. Girl, though she was, she felt in her own veins a little of
the thrill of coming conflict.
But her thoughts were not wholly of attack and defense; they followed as
well him who had come back so suddenly and who was now gone again into
the wilderness from which he had emerged. His appearance and manner had
impressed her deeply. She wished to hear more from him of the strange
wild life that he had led; she too felt, although in a more modified
form, the spell of the primeval.
Her task finished she went to the door, and then drawn by curiosity she
continued until her walk brought her near the palisade where she watched
the men on guard, their dusky figures touched by the wan light that came
from the slender crescent of a moon, and seeming altogether weird and
unreal.
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