Pagina 65 van 439

But not for long. She was too full of grit to give up without a

long fight. How many hours she wandered Margaret Kinney did not

know. The sun was high in the heavens when she began. It had

given place to flooding moonlight long before her worn feet and

aching heart gave up the search for some human landmark. Once at

least she must have slept, for she stared up from a spot where

she had sunk down to look up into a starry sky that was new to

her.

The moon had sailed across the vault and grown chill and faint

with dawn before she gave up, completely exhausted, and when her

eyes opened again it was upon a young day fresh and sweet. She

knew by this time hunger and an acute thirst. As the day

increased, this last she knew must be a torment of swollen tongue

and lime-kiln throat. Yesterday she had cried for help till her

voice had failed. A dumb despair had now driven away her terror.