A few days later, Uncle Reuben asked me to guide him to the
Doone valley. We did not tell anybody where we were going. We
rode through the Bagworthy forest to the hills that surrounded
the valley. Then we climbed slowly and with difficulty to the top
of a high hill. From there, we looked down. Uncle Reuben also
looked at the hills around the valley.
'If they put big guns on top of the hills, soldiers could
easily take this place,' he said. 'With three cannons on top of
that hill there, and three cannons on top of this hill, we could
destroy them.'
I was not listening to him. I was looking down into the valley
at the little opening in the rock that I had once come through. As
I looked at it, I saw someone pass close by it - someone white
and small, and beautiful. It was Lorna Doone.
I could feel my heart beating. Seven years had passed, and I
was a man now. I was sure that she had forgotten me, and I had
half forgotten her. It was very strange, but at that moment I felt
certain that my life was joined with hers.