“And now where are they both?”
“I don’t know. It was hot, and I went to sleep. I awoke for a little while, and they were fighting.”
“Fighting?” said the astonished Ralph.
“Yes, for something they’d found, something that shone like gold. I saw that they fell—Tonton gave William a jab with his knife—and then I don’t know what happened exactly—I went to sleep again perhaps. But it looked to me as if the wall fell and buried both of them.”
“What—what? What are you t-t-telling me?” stammered the horrified Ralph. “Answer—where did this happen? At what time?”
“When the bells began to ring—quite at the end. Look—there.”
The child bent over the cliff and looked astounded. “Oh!” he said. “The water’s come back!”
He thought for a moment then began to cry, and wailed: “Then—then—if the water has come back—they weren’t able to get away. So Tonton——” [[315]]
Ralph cut him short, saying: “Be quiet!”
Aurelie stood before them with troubled face; she had heard it.