For a while the three stood aghast and stared at each other and the point of rock which had been occupied by the venerable form of the late high priest; then Juanna sank upon the snow sobbing.
“It is my fault,” she wailed, “all my fault. Just now I was boasting to myself that I had won wealth for you, and I have lost everything. And we have suffered for nothing, and, Leonard, you are a beggar. Oh! it is too much—too much!”
“Go out there, Otter,” said Leonard in a hoarse voice, pointing to the place where Nam had hurled himself, “and see whether there is any chance of our being able to climb down into the gulf.”
The dwarf obeyed and presently returned shaking his head.
“It is impossible, Baas,” he said; “the walls of rock are sheer as though they had been cut with a knife; moreover there is water at the bottom of them, as the old wizard said, for I can hear the sound of it. Oh! Baas, Baas, why did you not kill him at first, or let me kill him afterwards? Surely I told you that he would bring evil on us. Well, they are gone and we can never find them again, so let us save our lives if we may, for after all these are more to us than bright stones. Come now and help me, Baas, for I have found two flat rocks that will serve our turn, a big one for you and the Shepherdess, since doubtless she will fear to make this journey alone, and a smaller one for myself.”
Leonard followed him without a word; he was too heart-broken to speak, while Juanna rose and returned to the spot where Nam had robbed her. Looking up presently, her eyes still blurred with tears, she saw Leonard and the dwarf laboriously pushing two heavy stones across the snow towards her.
“Come, do not cry, Juanna,” said Leonard, ceasing from his labours and laying his hand kindly upon her shoulder, “they are gone and there is an end of it. Now we must think of other things.”
“Oh!” she answered, “if only you had seen them, you would never stop crying all your life.”
“Then I dare say that the fit will be a short one,” replied Leonard grimly, glancing at the awful bridge which stretched between them and safety.
“Listen, Juanna, you and I must lie upon this stone, and it will—so says Otter—carry us across to the other side of the ravine.”