I remembered only one, "Cleaving only
unto her"; and this, in my weakened frame of body and mind, I could not
separate from my stern prayer to my own strength, once so ready, now so
strangely departed from me.
We ran as we might, back and forward on the slippery mud, scrambled up
and down, panting, until at length our hearts began to beat more
quickly, and the love of life came back strongly, and the unknown,
mysterious fire deep down somewhere, inscrutable, elemental, began to
flicker up once more, and we were saved--saved, we two savages, we two
primitive human beings, the only ones left alive after the deluge which
had flooded all the earth--left alive to begin the world all over again.
CHAPTER XXVI
IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH
To the delirious or the perishing man, time has no measuring. I do not
know how we spent the night, or how long it was. Some time it became
morning, if morning might be called this gray and cheerless lifting of
the gloom, revealing to us the sodden landscape, overcast with still
drizzling skies which blotted out each ray of sunlight.
Search what way I might, I could find nothing to relieve our plight. I
knew that Auberry would before this time have gone back to follow our
trail, perhaps starting after us even before night had approached; but
now the rain had blotted out all manner of trails, so rescue from that
source was not to be expected.
Pages:
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243