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larger tree. That was as well.
All the women and children stood watching upon the crest of the mound.
And the old woman stood and screamed for the lion to take her whom he
sought, and counselled him on the torments he might do her.
Eudena was very weary now, stunned by beatings and fatigue and sorrow,
and only the fear of the thing that was still to come upheld her. The
sun was broad and blood-red between the stems of the distant chestnuts,
and the west was all on fire; the evening breeze had died to a warm
tranquillity. The air was full of midge swarms, the fish in the river
hard by would leap at times, and now and again a cockchafer would drone
through the air. Out of the corner of her eye Eudena could see a part of
the squatting-knoll, and little figures standing and staring at her.
And--a very little sound but very clear--she could hear the beating of
the firestone. Dark and near to her and still was the reed-fringed
thicket of the lair.
Presently the firestone ceased. She looked for the sun and found he had
gone, and overhead and growing brighter was the waxing moon. She looked
towards the thicket of the lair, seeking shapes in the reeds, and then
suddenly she began to wriggle and wriggle, weeping and calling upon
Ugh-lomi.
But Ugh-lomi was far away. When they saw her head moving with her
struggles, they shouted together on the knoll, and she desisted and was
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