Not a sound to be heard save now and then the cry of a night bird far below in the forest, or the rustle of a lizard in the now dry grass. He could not tell the time. Morning might already be close at hand, and up from the sea the sun would leap and silver the trees and the clouds.
Kep trembled when he thought that this day would surely be his last, and that the fearful death was yet before him.
List! It is a step that comes softly nearer and nearer. Then he feels warmth on his cheek as some one by his side whispers in his ear. "Hushee. Hush. No speak me."
Then his bonds are severed with a sharp knife or dagger and he is free though weak and feeble in his knees.
"Are you the beautiful queen?"
"I is Boona. But come alonga me. You too good, vely good a boy to eat. Sides you no fat yet."
He felt himself being led by a soft, soft hand. Out and away into the blackness of night. Out and away through the flowers of the bushes, and up the crater's craggy side.
"Run, run, we mus' be fah, fah away before the sun he shinee again. Run, cause if dey catches we, bof must die. I hab jus' kill de ugly old queen."
Despite his gratitude, Kep shivered a little as he thought that the hand which held his was that of a murderess, and that the backs of the fingers might still be stained with human blood. Yet who was he that he should judge of or attempt to weigh the sum of this girl's guiltiness.
In the days of his real boyhood he had been used to running barefooted in moors and on hills, so he hardly missed the shoes the savages had stolen from him.