Part 58 (1/2)
”Dearest,” he answered, kissing her tenderly, ”as we are tied together, it seems that if you die I must die too Do not break do after you have borne so much”
”It is the jewels,” she sobbed, ”the jewels; I feel as though I had committed a murder”
”Oh! bother the jewels!” said Leonard ”We can think about them afterwards” And he advanced towards the flat stone, Juanna feeling the while as though they were two of Carrier's victie of the Loire
As they came to the stone Leonard heard a sound behind hi round he saw Soa rushi+ng towards theht ofin her eyes
”Get back,” he said sternly, ”or----” and he lifted the great spear
”Oh! Shepherdess,” she wailed, ”take me with you, Shepherdess, for I cannot live without you”
”Tell her to go away,” said Juanna, recognising the voice; ”I never want to see her any more”
”You hear, Soa,” answered Leonard ”Stay, how has it gone yonder? Speak truly”
”I know not, Deliverer; when I left, Olfan and his brother still held the mouth of the tunnel and were unhurt, but the captain was dead I slipped past theash in her side
”If he can hold out a little longer, help may reach him,” muttered Leonard Then without more words, he laid himself and Juanna face doards on the broad stone
”Now, Juanna,” he said, ”we are going to start Grip fast with your right hand, and see that you do not leave go of the edge of the stone, or we shall both slip off it”
”Oh! take me with you, Shepherdess, take me with you, and I will be wicked no more, but serve you as of old,” shrilled the voice of Soa in so despairing a cry that the rocks rang
”Hold fast,” said Leonard through his set teeth, as, disengaging his right hand from about Juanna's waist, he seized the handle of the spear and pressed its broad blade against a knob of rock behind thee of the declivity, trembled beneath the froan to move down the icy way
For the first second it scarcely seerew palpable, and at that instant Leonard heard a noise behind him and felt his left foot clasped by a hued thee of the stone, and though he could still feel the hand upon his ankle, the strain became almost imperceptible
CHAPTER xxxIX
THE PassING OF THE BRIDGE
Lifting his head very cautiously, Leonard looked over his shoulder and the mystery was explained In her madness and the fury of her love for the ed and betrayed, Soa had striven to throw herself upon the stone with them so soon as she saw it co forward, she grasped despairingly at the first thing that came to her hand, which chanced to be Leonard's ankle Now she must accompany them upon their awesoged after theh Leonard's brain as he realised her fearful plight Then for a while he forgot all about her, since his attention was amply occupied with his own and Juanna's peril Now they were rushi+ng down the long slope with an ever-increasing velocity, and now they breasted the first rise, during the last ten yards of which, as in the case of Otter, the pace of the stone slowed down so ressive exhaustion of itsto a standstill Then it was that he kicked out viciously, striving to free hi the to him like ivy to a tree, and he desisted froe to alter its course
On the very top of the rise the ness, then little by little increased once more as they traversed a short sharp dip, the saht of Otter, to be succeeded by a gentle rise So far, though exciting and novel, their journey had been comparatively safe, for the path was broad and the ice perfectly s forward, Leonard saw that they were at the co four or five hundred yards in length, and so steep that, even had it offered a good foothold, huue of ice was fifty paces or more in width, but it narrowed rapidly as it fell, till at length near the opposite shore of the ravine, it fined away to a point like that of a great white needle, and then seeether
Now they ell under way, and now they sped down the steep green ice at a pace that can hardly be ile rushi+ng on its quarry froht of air Indeed it is possible that the sensations of an eagledescent and those of Leonard may have been very similar, with the important exception that the bird feels no fear, whereas absolute terror are the only words ith to describe the mental state of the man So smooth was the ice and so precipitous its pitch that he felt as though he were falling through space, unsupported by anything, for travelling at that speed the friction of the stone was imperceptible
Only the air shrieked as they clove it, and Juanna's long tresses, torn by it fros, streamed out behind her like a veil
Down they went, still down; half--two-thirds of the distance was done, then he looked again and saw the horror that lay before thee was narrow, barely the width of a small room; sixty yards further on it tapered to so fine a point that their stone would almost cover its breadth, and beneath it on either side yawned that unulf wherein Nam was lost with the jewels Nor was this all, for at its narrowest _the ice band was broken away for a space of ten or twelve feet_, to continue on the further side of the gap for a few yards at a somewhat lower level, and then run upwards at a steep incline to the breast of snohere Otter sat in safety