"Why are the children not here!"I said to myself."The moment I am free of this poor woman,I must go back and fetch them!"Where were the creatures going?What drew them?Was this an exodus,or a morning habit?I must wait for the sun!Till he came I must not leave the woman!
I laid my hand on the body,and could not help thinking it felt a trifle warmer.It might have gained a little of the heat I had lost!
it could hardly have generated any!What reason for hope there was had not grown less!
The forehead of the day began to glow,and soon the sun came peering up,as if to see for the first time what all this stir of a new world was about.At sight of his great innocent splendour,I rose full of life,strong against death.Removing the handkerchief Ihad put to protect the mouth and eyes from the pine-needles,Ilooked anxiously to see whether I had found a priceless jewel,or but its empty case.
The body lay motionless as when I found it.Then first,in the morning light,I saw how drawn and hollow was the face,how sharp were the bones under the skin,how every tooth shaped itself through the lips.The human garment was indeed worn to its threads,but the bird of heaven might yet be nestling within,might yet awake to motion and song!
But the sun was shining on her face!I re-arranged the handkerchief,laid a few leaves lightly over it,and set out to follow the creatures.Their main track was well beaten,and must have long been used--likewise many of the tracks that,joining it from both sides,merged in,and broadened it.The trees retreated as I went,and the grass grew thicker.Presently the forest was gone,and a wide expanse of loveliest green stretched away to the horizon.
Through it,along the edge of the forest,flowed a small river,and to this the track led.At sight of the water a new though undefined hope sprang up in me.The stream looked everywhere deep,and was full to the brim,but nowhere more than a few yards wide.A bluish mist rose from it,vanishing as it rose.On the opposite side,in the plentiful grass,many small animals were feeding.Apparently they slept in the forest,and in the morning sought the plain,swimming the river to reach it.I knelt and would have drunk,but the water was hot,and had a strange metallic taste.
I leapt to my feet:here was the warmth I sought--the first necessity of life!I sped back to my helpless charge.
Without well considering my solitude,no one will understand what seemed to lie for me in the redemption of this woman from death.
"Prove what she may,"I thought with myself,"I shall at least be lonely no more!"I had found myself such poor company that now first I seemed to know what hope was.This blessed water would expel the cold death,and drown my desolation!
I bore her to the stream.Tall as she was,I found her marvellously light,her bones were so delicate,and so little covered them.Igrew yet more hopeful when I found her so far from stiff that Icould carry her on one arm,like a sleeping child,leaning against my shoulder.I went softly,dreading even the wind of my motion,and glad there was no other.
The water was too hot to lay her at once in it:the shock might scare from her the yet fluttering life!I laid her on the bank,and dipping one of my garments,began to bathe the pitiful form.
So wasted was it that,save from the plentifulness and blackness of the hair,it was impossible even to conjecture whether she was young or old.Her eyelids were just not shut,which made her look dead the more:there was a crack in the clouds of her night,at which no sun shone through!
The longer I went on bathing the poor bones,the less grew my hope that they would ever again be clothed with strength,that ever those eyelids would lift,and a soul look out;still I kept bathing continuously,allowing no part time to grow cold while I bathed another;and gradually the body became so much warmer,that at last I ventured to submerge it:I got into the stream and drew it in,holding the face above the water,and letting the swift,steady current flow all about the rest.I noted,but was able to conclude nothing from the fact,that,for all the heat,the shut hand never relaxed its hold.
After about ten minutes,I lifted it out and laid it again on the bank,dried it,and covered it as well as I could,then ran to the forest for leaves.
The grass and soil were dry and warm;and when I returned I thought it had scarcely lost any of the heat the water had given it.Ispread the leaves upon it,and ran for more--then for a third and a fourth freight.
I could now leave it and go to explore,in the hope of discovering some shelter.I ran up the stream toward some rocky hills I saw in that direction,which were not far off.
When I reached them,I found the river issuing full grown from a rock at the bottom of one of them.To my fancy it seemed to have run down a stair inside,an eager cataract,at every landing wild to get out,but only at the foot finding a door of escape.