Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/51

  "Then the lethargy crept on again. I crawled back to my hammock and, still fighting the fear, fell asleep. The others slept before I—and I could hear them whining and whimpering like young puppies taken from the litter.

"I was the first to awaken when the light came. My fear was gone and I lay drenched in perspiration, yet comfortable, unwilling to rouse myself.

Oh, the awfu' nicht!' moaned MacFarlane, and covered his face with his gnarled hands. Vinckers did not speak, but shouldered his kit.

Let us go,' he said, and we filed away from the place without looking back at the cannibal girl in the plaited hammock, her drawn face covered with the Scotchman's only neckerchief.

"We wandered down the valley looking for a place to ford the stream and begin the ascent. We had no carriers, no goods, no especial hopes, but these things did not trouble [ 35 ]