"
Helm was dumfounded at this prompt acceptance of his terms. Indeed
the incident is unique in history.
As Hamilton spoke he very naturally glanced up to where la
banniere d'Alice Roussillon waved brilliantly. Someone stood
beside it on the dilapidated roof of the old blockhouse, and was
already taking it from its place. His aid, Captain Farnsworth, saw
this, and the vision made his heart draw in a strong, hot flood It
was a girl in short skirts and moccasins, with a fur hood on her
head, her face, thrillingly beautiful, set around with fluffs of
wind-blown brown-gold hair. Farnsworth was too young to be
critical and too old to let his eyes deceive him. Every detail of
the fine sketch, with its steel-blue background of sky, flashed
into his mind, sharp-cut as a cameo. Involuntarily he took off his
hat.
Alice had come in by way of the postern. She mounted to the roof
unobserved, and made her way to the flag, just at the moment when
Helm, glad at heart to accept the easiest way out of a tight
place, asked Oncle Jazon to lower it.
Beverley was thinking of Alice, and when he looked up he could
scarcely realize that he saw her; but the whole situation was
plain the instant she snatched the staff from its place; for he,
too, recollected what she had said at the river house. The memory
and the present scene blended perfectly during the fleeting
instant that she was visible.
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