Page:Son of the wind.djvu/314

RV 296 eye and terrors for the imagination was at every turn possible and easy for the feet.

They went down over long shallow terraces, for the spread of this eminence was slow as it neared the depth. The moon had sunk away until it stood. above the Sphinx's head. The great cañon sank behind the company of hills. In their black hollow a bright spot rippled like prismed glass. That would be the river the moon had caught leaping a rapid. Elsewhere it flowed unseen, and was heard as a monotone unvarying and incessant. It was strange to come down upon soft ground again, to feel it yield beneath his feet and see leaves above his head. He was traveling again on broad earth down an abrupt slope, his companion soft footing a pace in advance and threading rapidly among the trees. The sound of pouring water was still like a sound of the distance. He had no forewarning of the broken white which glimmered suddenly beyond the trunks of the pines. It was a line of boulders tossed up in a low irregular wall. This might be a branch from the bed of the greater stream that had been sucked dry by months of sun. Blanche pressed between the rocks or over them warily, looking back to point him a secure foothold evidently known to her, tried, and to be depended on. A creature in flight for her life could have made better use of the minutes. Coming