"
"But you can not bring a priest. Great harm would be done if news of this
affair were to get abroad. You understand that what has passed here must
never be known by the outside world. My father and Baron von Marhof have
counseled that, and you may be sure there are reasons why these things
must be kept quiet, or they would seek the law's aid at once."
"Yes; I have been a soldier; but after this little war I shall bury the
dead. In an hour I shall be back to drive the buckboard to Lamar
station."
Claiborne looked at his watch.
"I will go with you," he said.
They started through the wood toward the Port of Missing Men; and
together they found rough niches in the side of the gap, down which they
made their way toilsomely to the boulder-lined stream that laughed and
tumbled foamily at the bottom of the defile. They found the wreckage of
the slender bridge, broken to fragments where the planking had struck the
rocks. It was very quiet in the mountain cleft, and the stars seemed
withdrawn to newer and deeper arches of heaven as they sought in the
debris for the Servian. They kindled a fire of twigs to give light for
their search, and soon found the great body lying quite at the edge of
the torrent, with arms flung out as though to ward off a blow.
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