Page:Cy Warman--The express messenger and other tales of the rail.djvu/104

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"She knew that she was counted among the dead by her people, and if she returned to them she would be drowned in this river when the sun went down.

"Yes, it was clearly her duty now to die, and she would drown herself at the set of sun. Having reconciled herself to her fate she fell asleep, and when she awoke the sky was all studded with stars. She had slept over the death time and now must await another sunset. She went down to the river and bathed her face. Oh, the mystery of the river! Where did it come from and where was it going? Would it bear her back to her lost lover? No, it was flowing toward the morning and would carry her farther away. She turned away, haunted by the conviction that she had no place in this world, for she had heard them sing in the death chant:—

"And yet she could not put out of her heart the longing to live; and, setting her face from