Try as she would she could not keep awake any longer. Sleep came, dreamless sleep!
Someone was shaking her gently. Rousing herself, Sana looked up. Cintani was bending over her, smiling happily.
“We are safe now, dear. The poison has done its work.”
Sana, comforted, yet surprised, “How did you do it?”
Tears welled in the girl’s eyes as she brokenly whispered, “After what happened last night I supposed the women considered me one of them. They made me help with the food. That gave me my chance.”
Sana wanted to take the weeping girl in her arms, but Cintani would not let her.
“There is no time to be lost,” she urged, “Come, let us get out of this. I have food and water.”
Once out of the cave, Sana saw that Cintani was right. The cave people were lying on the ground, apparently asleep, but theirs was an eternal slumber.
With delighted eyes, Sana saw the two horses. Quickly the girls mounted and rode off in the clear moonlight. Sana gave her horse his head, knowing that his instinct would tell him the way.
All that night their swift mounts put the miles under their feet. The desert stars, which had guided Sana, had disappeared and the sun, coming up from behind the dunes, saw the two girls riding wildly homeward, till night fell, then they rested for a few hours. Early in the morning they started out again.