n the
watcher--hope that an apoplexy might stretch the man dead at her
feet.

Hodges reached for the jug, and poured from it into the cup, and
drank. The girl perceived that, in the few seconds, his mood had
changed utterly. The purple of his face was dingy with gray. He was
trembling now. His eyes moved restlessly, as if fearful of something
to issue from the darkness. Not once did they rest on her. She
remembered the racing pulse in his throat, and looked for it. To her
astonishment, it was no longer to be seen, though the light fell on
the place as before. She knew then that the fever had died, and she
marveled mightily. But she recognized more, for she was unharmed
still. The changed mood of her enemy promised immunity, for a time at
least.

Yet once again, the outlaw drank. Then, without a word to the
prisoner, or so much as a look in her direction, he got down on his
hands and knees, and crawled out of sight through the hole in the
wall.

For what seemed to her ages, Plutina waited for his return, dreading a
new, obscene mood. But the time dragged on, and there was no sign of
his coming. The candle flared and smoked, went out. The girl huddled
in the dark, listening now, for her eyes could not pierce the
blackness. The roar of the waterfall filled her ears. The noise
dismayed her, for it must inevitably cover all lesser sounds, even
those close at hand. Any evil might leap on her without warning, out
of the darkness. She felt her helplessness multiplied, intolerable,
thus blinded and deafened. She longed to shriek, pitting shrill clamor
against the bass thunders of the cascade. She began to fear lest
madness seize her if she remained longer thus supinely crouching amid
the terrors of this place. Obeying a sudden impulse, she got up, and
gropingly, with shuffling, cautious steps, moved across the cavern.
When she reached the opposite wall, she got down on hands and knees,
and crawled until her searching fingers found the emptiness of the
hole through which the men had passed. Then, she drew back a little,
and sat with alert ears, sure that none could issue into the cavern
now without her knowledge.

The relief afforded by the action soon waned. Terrors crowded on her
again in the second period of waiting. In desperation, she determined
to explore the hole itself. She tried to examine the project carefully
and found nothing to stay her purpose. Joy leaped in her at the
thought that a way of escape even might