ost, and given over to destruction; for they had
possessed me immediately, but that in that moment, as I went backward,
the earth gave behind me, and I fell into a hole among the moss-bushes
to my back, and I made first to come out very hurried, and all choked
with a dust of sand and ash; but in a moment I was sane to know that I
had come to a sudden hiding-place; and I lay very still and strove
neither to cough nor to breathe. And well for me, I came to so close a
hiding; for there were all about me the sounds of monstrous footsteps,
running, that seemed to shake the ground; though maybe this to be an
imagining bred of my fear.

And shoutings of great voices there were; and the thudding of huge feet
all about; and the noises of the bushes rustling; but presently the
search drew away to the Southward. And I perceived that there had surely
fought for me some power of good fortune. And I came up out of the hole,
very cautious, and shaken and a moment weak with the beating of my
heart; yet with a lovely thankfulness for my salvation. And I gat me
about, and went swift through the moss-bushes to the North and West for
three hours, and ceased not to run upon my hands and knees. And by that
time was I come a great way, and did have a surety in my heart of
present safety.

And I ceased to run, and lay quiet; for, in truth, I did near swoon away
with the hardness of my travel. And indeed as you shall know, I had
slept not for seven-and-twenty hours, and had scarce ceased to labour in
all that time. Moreover, I had eat not, neither drunk, for nine hours;
and so shall you conceive that I was truly a-weary.

And, presently I did slumber there as I lay, and all abroad to any
monstrous thing that should come along. Yet did I wake unharmed, and
found by my dial there had gone by a full ten hours, the while that I
did lie there and sleep unwotting. And I was sore perished with the cold
of the Night; for I had not the warmth of my cloak about me, and my
belly was very empty.

And I stood me up, and did peer about for any dread matter, but all
seemed proper, and I began to stamp my feet against the earth, as that
I would drive it from me, and this I do say as a whimsy, and I swung
mine arms, as often you shall do in the cold days; and so I was
presently something warmed. And I dismantled my cloak, and wrapped it
about me, and did feel that the Diskos was safe to my hip.

Then did I sit me down, and did glow a little with relish, in