i will you on the plain or by the saw edged rock if i do not throw away that child and follow the road of which i have told you you can scarcely mistake it go on showing no fear and � stay let that blanket hang open in front it is not the custom of these women to wear their garments wrapped so closely groaned but she obeyed chapter the pass of the like wild beasts escaping from a pen that red eyed gasping mob rushed and staggered to the edge of the water and plunging their heads into it with hoarse and cries drank and drank and drank indeed several lost their lives there for some filled themselves so full that their were and some were thrust into the river by the cattle or those pressing behind them to be carried away by the swift stream just at the mouth of the pass laden with the child was pushed down by those who followed and doubtless would have been trampled to death had not one of s men desiring to clear the way or perhaps moved to pity at her plight dragged her to her feet again but when he had done this he did not let her go but held her staring at her beauty with greedy eyes here is a rock rabbit whom i shall keep for a wife he cried i would rather take her than twenty fat oxen now s heart nearly stood still with terror water water she moaned let me drink i pray you do not fear i will take you to drink my pretty went on the man still staring at her then losing command of herself screamed and the pass of the struggled and the sound of her cries reached the ears of who was standing close at hand what is this he asked of the man nothing bull head except that i have taken a woman whom i wish for a wife because she is so fair van let his eyes rest upon her but for all his thoughts were given to her who sat aloft five hundred feet above his head and feeling their glance s blood in her veins yes she is fair he answered but she is a married woman and i will have no among my people let her go and take a girl if you will for van did not wish that the few men who remained with him should themselves just then with women and children since they were needed to look after the cattle maid or wife i choose this one and no other said the man then black whose sullen temper could not brook to be crossed broke into a blaze of rage do you dare to me he shouted with an awful oath let her go dog or i will kill you at this the man who knew his master hold of who ran away though it was not until she reached the water that she noticed a white ring round her arm where his grip had rubbed the paint off the skin beneath strangely enough van saw the ring and at that distance it for an ivory ornament such as women often wear above the elbow still more strangely its white colour made him think again of the white woman who sat aloft yonder and he turned his face upwards forgetting all about the black girl with the child thrusting herself through the crowd ran on for a while till she was clear of the worst of it then terrified swallow though she was she could resist the temptation of the water no longer for her mouth and throat felt dry and rough climbing down to the edge of the river she drank under the shelter of a rock and when she had satisfied some of her thirst she poured water into the mouth of the child dipping its little body into the stream whereon it seemed to increase before her eyes like a dry that is left out in the rain while she tended the child thus and just as it began to find its senses and to wail feebly she chanced to look up and to her terror saw that man from whom she had escaped walking along the bank searching for her happy was it for that the rock under which she was crouched hid her for the man stood for thirty seconds or more within two paces so that she was obliged to plunge the body of the boy under water to its crying then as it happened the caught sight of another woman and infant more than a hundred yards away and ran off towards them the half choked child upon her back climbed the bank hiding the white mark upon her arm beneath the blanket and taking such shelter as she could behind stones or cattle or knots of people who their thirst appeased were hastening to escape she slipped across the shoulder of the slope now she was out of sight of and his men and for the first time for many a day began to breathe freely for a while she crept on round the flank of the mountain then at the best of her speed she struck across the plain straight for the saw edged rock ten miles away which marked the entrance to the pass over the range from time to time looked behind her but none followed her nor search as she would could she discover the pass of the any trace of who she began to fear must have come to some harm one thing she could see however � the corpse set on high in the chair of rock and by the side of it a black dot that she knew to be twice she turned round and gazed at it but the second time the dot had become almost although it still was there long 