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reasoned swiftness hither and thither.
He heard steps behind him just in time, and found a tall man
rushing forward and swiping at the sound of him. He lost his
nerve, hurled his spade a yard wide of this antagonist, and whirled
about and fled, fairly yelling as he dodged another.
He was panic-stricken. He ran furiously to and fro, dodging
when there was no need to dodge, and, in his anxiety to see on
every side of him at once, stumbling. For a moment he was down and
they heard his fall. Far away in the circumferential wall a little
doorway looked like Heaven, and he set off in a wild rush for it.
He did not even look round at his pursuers until it was gained, and
he had stumbled across the bridge, clambered a little way among the
rocks, to the surprise and dismay of a young llama, who went
leaping out of sight, and lay down sobbing for breath.
And so his coup d'etat came to an end.
He stayed outside the wall of the valley of the blind for two
nights and days without food or shelter, and meditated upon the
Unexpected. During these meditations he repeated very frequently
and always with a profounder note of derision the exploded proverb:
"In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is King." He thought
chiefly of ways of fighting and conquering these people, and it
grew clear that for him no practicable way was possible. He had no
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