Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/236

 were all she had; she meant to give them to Saturnino.

She pushed her way through the cistus, and bearberry, and rosemary; now and then a partridge flew up before her feet, but there were no birds singing; the season of song was passed. There were hundreds of lizards rushing to and fro, and the big wood rat, the fox, and the snipe, and the plover, were still astir, going home after their night's foray; that was all.

She pushed the bushes aside and ran down the steps, and entered the cave without fear, thinking only of the help that she brought. 'The tomb was empty.

In answer to her shouts there was only a dull echo thrown back from the roof of sandstone.

Suspicion and distrust, the seeds sown by captivity, and sure to bring forth fruit in sullen sins of hatred and of fear, had been too strong for the nature of the galley-slave to resist their influence and their instinct. How could he tell that she would not sell her secret for a price, and only return to bring his capturers with her? How could he tell?

Alone there in the bowels of the earth,