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!"