Page:Neuroomia.djvu/216

204 the opposite direction. I began to apologise for my inadvertent intrusion, when she smiled in her former enchanting manner, and inquired, though apparently without much concern, if I had wholly recovered from the effects of my experience on the ice. We conversed for a while, and I found her as agreeable as ever. She was by herself, and although I looked about me more than once, I saw nothing of Omalonzi or Estas. This, however, did not cause me any serious inconvenience, and, after doing justice to the good things we had brought with us, took part in their games.

Time wore on, gladness ruled the hours, and many were the loving glances exchanged, when the happy throng were startled by the shrill cry of a human being as in distress. All looked, and some hurried in the direction from whence it came. I happened to be among the foremost, and, on arriving at the edge of a deep and dark gorge, which ran into the great valley itself, I saw the form of a woman, with a child clasped in her arms, hung in the branches of a tree some distance beneath. The woman was still and silent, but the child tossed and moaned occasionally. Ropes were speedily obtained and a man lowered, who made the lady fast to the end of one.