Cocheforet in it. But I found no hut.
There was none; and, moreover, it was so dark now we were off the
road, that it came upon me suddenly, as I stood between the hill
and the stack, that I had undertaken a very difficult thing. The
hut behind the fern stack. But how far behind? how far from it?
The dark slope stretched above us, infinite, immeasurable
shrouded in night. To begin to climb it in search of a tiny hut,
possibly well hidden and hard to find in daylight, seemed an
endeavour as hopeless as to meet with the needle in the hay! And
now while I stood, chilled and doubting, almost despairing, the
steps of the troop in the road began to grow audible, began to
come nearer.
'Well, Monsieur le Capitaine?' the man beside me muttered--in
wonder why I stood. 'Which way? or they will be before us yet.'
I tried to think, to reason it out; to consider where the hut
should be; while the wind sighed through the oaks, and here and
there I could hear an acorn fall. But the thing pressed too
close on me; my thoughts would not be hurried, and at last I said
at a venture,--
'Up the hill.
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238