The two women gazed in extreme darkness. The other side of the ridge
of rock was black as night. From side to side the ridge extended,
like a jagged knife edge on a prodigious scale; it seemed infinite
in extent. Behind them--that is, at their feet--lay the
stone-covered expanse they had just traversed; ahead of them there
was--nothingness itself.
Cunora shook with fear and cold. "Let us not go on, Rolla!" she
whimpered. "I like not the looks of this void; it may contain all
sorts of beasts. I--I am afraid!" She began to sob convulsively.
Rolla peered into the darkness. Nothing whatever was to be seen. It
was as easy to imagine enemies as friends; easier in fact. What
might not the unknown hold for them?
"We cannot stay here," spoke Rolla, with what energy her condition
would permit. "We could not--hold on. Nor can we return now; They
would surely find us!"
But Cunora's courage, which had never faltered in the face of
familiar dangers, was not equal to the unknown. She wailed: "Rolla!
A little way back--a hollow in the rock! 'Tis big enough to shelter
me! I would--rather stay there than--go on!"
"Ye would rather die there, alone!"
Cunora hid her face. "Let me have half the food! I can go back to
the pool--for water! And maybe," hopefully--"maybe They will give
up the search in time."
"Aye," from Rolla, bitterly. "And in time Dulnop will die, if we do
nothing for him--and for Corrus!"