Part 39 (2/2)
The face of Naladi, which had been pale and drawn, flushed, her eyes fairly blazing
”So you dare ; I aive you a taste of my power”
As the words fell fro with a peculiar gesture a glittering ht It nal for unrestrained sacrifice, for it was greeted with fierce howls of delight, the savage herd pressing in upon the prisoners, so that I lost sight of them an instant in the crush
”Wait, woman!” rose the priest's voice above the uproar ”I admit your power here to take physical life; I expect no mercy frorant me one favor, Marie Fousard”
”What?”
”A ive absolution to this child of God before we die”
”Pish!+ is that all? Go on with your fool h the sight of it will but anger theainst the altar, with face buried in her hands
The _pere_ dropped upon his knees beside her About thees, maddened with blood-lust, but Naladi clapped her hands, with voice and gesture bidding them wait her further word An instant they swayed passionately back and forth, their fanatical priests claeance
Then Naladi shook loose her hair, perolden-red shower, until it veiled her from head to foot The silenced crowd stared as if in worshi+p of the supernatural I know not what she said, uplifting her white aruess
”Natchez, I dare you to disobey the Daughter of the Sun!”
Swept by a superstition stronger than hate, they flung therovelling like worms, heedless of all except her presence and her supremacy She was a Goddess, one whose as destruction Gazing down upon them, conscious of her power, her thin lips smiled in contempt 'T was so I saw her last; so I shall always picture her in ure, covered with a veil of red-gold hair, her eyes like dia, her lips curved in proud disdain; a queen of savages, a high priestess of hell
The sudden cessation of noise esome, uncanny It rendered manifest the ceaseless roar of thunder without Directly in front of htning
Dreadful as was the spectacle, it yielded me a flash of hope--here opportunity pointed a path of escape With no pause for thought I whirled to arouse the Puritan, every nerve a-tingle with desperation
His deep-set eyes glowed like two coals, his square jaw projecting like that of a fighting bulldog
”Cairnes,” I muttered, almost heedless of what I said in the necessity for haste ”If we could attain the tree-bridge, we ht hold the devils See! the way is clear! What say you to the trial? Will you bear the priest?”
His grip tightened about the war-club, as he half rose to his feet like a rowled, ”the Jesuit is a man”
”Then come!”
With one leap I was upon the floor; almost at the saely at soure, and in five strides was at the side of Eloise One shrill cry of warning froh the chamber, and was answered by the yell of the warriors I was already clasping Eloise against e stood between, and now, all hope centred upon the desperate race, I dashed forward down the rocky path, rendered hideous by the lightning All the fires of hell see from the sky, while fierce crashes of thunder echoed from rock to rock I scarcely heard or saw Beloned the abyss, black with night; above stretched solid, overhanging stone, painted by green and yellow fla except that ribbon of a path, the need of haste, the white, upturned face in my arms God! was ever such a race as that run before? Did everover such a path of death? No one need ask hoas done; how speeding feet clung to the narrow rock
I know not; I never kneice I stu in despair, yet ran on like aI leaped dohere I had crept in cli splinters of rock tore my clothes, bruised my body; , yet I ran still, her forainst my breast I shudder now in the recollection; then I scarcely knew Ahead loo fear, only exultation, as I bore down recklessly upon it It ht of the yawning depth If death caether
”Eloise, steady ainst the cliff,” I panted, and stepped forth boldly upon the trunk My h bark firmly, yet I swayed horribly under ain I feltwildly, yet some power held us, until, at last, I stood on solid rock, utterly unable to essay another yard Panting for breath, lanced backward in apprehension I could perceive Cairnes footing the log, the head of the priest showing black and distinct above his broad shoulder; beyond, athe cliff face I staggered to rowl of relief the Puritan dropped his burden The next instant he had one great shoulder under the tree root Heaving with all his reat trunk, and I saw it topple over into the abyss; I saw his burly figure tottering on the very brink--then one awful flash lit up the sky, so blinding me that I sank face doard on the rock The cliff shook as if riven fro like the report of a thousand guns
CHAPTER xxxVII
THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD