At the worst they could only kill
and eat her also, and now that Nahoon and her father were gone, being
untroubled by any religious or spiritual hopes and fears, she was not
greatly concerned to keep her own breath in her.
Slipping through the hole in the tree, Nanea walked quietly towards the
cannibals--not knowing in the least what she should do when she reached
them. As she arrived in line with the fire this lack of programme came
home to her mind forcibly, and she paused to reflect. Just then one of
the cannibals looked up to see a tall and stately figure wrapped in a
white garment which, as the flame-light flickered on it, seemed now to
advance from the dense background of shadow, and now to recede into it.
The poor savage wretch was holding a stone knife in his teeth when he
beheld her, but it did not remain there long, for opening his great
jaws he uttered the most terrified and piercing yell that Nanea had
ever heard. Then the others saw her also, and presently the forest was
ringing with shrieks of fear. For a few seconds the outcasts stood
and gazed, then they were gone this way and that, bursting their path
through the undergrowth like startled jackals.
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