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bulk with heavy paces hurried along, making a noise like a calf, but
what it was she could not see. But she thought from the voice it was
Yaaa the rhinoceros, who stabs with his nose, goes always alone, and
rages without cause.
At last the little stars began to hide, and then the larger ones. It was
like all the animals vanishing before the Terror. The Sun was coming,
lord of the sky, as the grizzly was lord of the forest. Eudena wondered
what would happen if one star stayed behind. And then the sky paled to
the dawn.
When the daylight came the fear of lurking things passed, and she could
descend. She was stiff, but not so stiff as you would have been, dear
young lady (by virtue of your upbringing), and as she had not been
trained to eat at least once in three hours, but instead had often
fasted three days, she did not feel uncomfortably hungry. She crept down
the tree very cautiously, and went her way stealthily through the wood,
and not a squirrel sprang or deer started but the terror of the grizzly
bear froze her marrow.
Her desire was now to find her people again. Her dread of Uya the
Cunning was consumed by a greater dread of loneliness. But she had lost
her direction. She had run heedlessly overnight, and she could not tell
whether the squatting-place was sunward or where it lay. Ever and again
she stopped and listened, and at last, very far away, she heard a
measured chinking. It was so faint even in the morning stillness that
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