The strip of moon had paled as it rose, the huge white stones glimmered
faintly in it, and a darker patch below showed him where the entrance
must be. He crept into the darker patch on his hands and knees, bumping
his head violently, but once inside found room to sit upright. Snaking
out again, he laid hold of the two bundles and the gun, and dragged them
into shelter.
What the bundles contained he could not tell in the dark, but one felt
like a thick woollen cloak, and the other like a blanket, and among
their contents he felt a loaf of bread, and a bottle and a powder-flask.
So he rolled himself up in the blanket and the cloak, and lay wondering
at the strange case in which he found himself, and so at last fell
asleep.
* * * * *
He woke into a dapple of light and shade which filled his wandering wits
with wonder, till, with a start, he came to himself and remembered.
The place he was in was something like a stone bee-hive, about eight
feet across from side to side, with a rounded sloping roof rising at its
highest some four feet from the ground, and the great blocks of which it
was built fitted so ill in places that the sun shot the darkness through
and through with innumerable little white arrows of light.
Pages:
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200