At daybreak they set off again, having thus thirty hours' start of
their pursuers. They traveled six hours, rested from eleven till
three, and then traveled again until dark. Occasionally a sheep
lagged behind, footsore and weary. He was instantly killed and
cut up.
For four days was their rate of traveling, which amounted to upward
of fifty miles a day, continued, and they arrived, as has been
said, the last evening at their village.
During all this time Ethel was treated with courtesy and respect.
The best portion of the food was put aside for her, the little tent
of skins was always erected at night, and no apparent watch was
kept over her movements.
The next morning she was awake early, and had it not been for the
terrible situation in which she was placed she would have been
amused by the busy stir in the village, and by the little
copper-colored urchins at play, or going out with the women to
collect wood or fetch water. There was nothing to prevent Ethel
from going out among them, but the looks of scowling hatred which
they cast at her made her draw back again into the hut, after a
long, anxious look around.
It was relief at least to have halted, great as her danger
undoubtedly was. She felt certain now that hour by hour her father
must be approaching.
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