What had wakened Caius was the sound of voices
talking ahead of the cart, and the jerk of the cart as it was evidently
being driven off the smooth beach on to a very rough and steep incline.
He sat up and strove to pierce the darkness by sight. They had come to
no end of their journey. The long beach, with its walls of foam and of
dune, stretched on without change. But upon this beach they were no
longer travelling; the horse was headed, as it were, to the dune, and
now began to climb its almost upright side.
With an imprecation he threw himself out of the cart at a bound into
sand so soft that he sank up to the knees and stumbled against the
upright side of the hill. The lower voice he had heard was silent
instantly. O'Shea stopped the pony with a sharp word of interrogation.
"Where are you going?" shouted Caius. "What are you going to do?"
He need not have shouted, for the wind was swift to carry all sounds
from his lips to O'Shea; but the latter's voice, as it came back to him,
seemed to stagger against the force of the wind and almost to fail.
"Where are we going? Well, we're going roight up towards the sky at
present, but in a minute we'll be going roight down towards the other
place. If ye just keep on at that side of the cart ye'll get into a
place where we'll have a bit of shelter and rest till the moon rises."
"What is the matter? What are you turning off the road for?" Caius
shouted again, half dazed by his sleep and sudden awakening, and wholly
angry at the disagreeable situation.
Pages:
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118