390 WILD SPOETS m THE SOUTH. 



her extremity One she did not openly petition in her 

 pride of life. Her mind swejDt around the whole circuit 

 of her years, summing up in a second an age of being, 

 and millions of defences that might have aided her had 

 they been there. Trees, woods, air and the ocean, love, 

 hope, and books, flashed through her mind as quickly 

 and brightly as the light in a summer cloud, and yet 

 she was conscious without seeing him, of the approach 

 of the dread shape that was climbing from below. It 

 was the fascination of a fate that could not be averted. 



In a moment her eye fell upon a weight that had been 

 used as a balance to the mechanism of the lamp. It was 

 a heavy cannon ball, with a ring in it. She rolled it to the 

 edge of the trap door, and when next the figure below 

 passed the light of a window she let it fall. Downward it 

 flew with swift gathering velocity, until it struck the 

 savage on the bare forehead, when he was hurled with it 

 to the bottom, striking from side to side a lifeless mass. 



As one throwing a stone in a marsh will wake to shrill 

 clattering, the rails hiding in its lonely coverts, and as 

 their mocking cries, answered from tussock and reed, 

 immediately hush into silence again, so the two bodies, 

 hurled wdtli a dull blow to the base of the tower, awoke 

 the silence of the night with the baffled whoop of the 

 savages who w^ere waiting below ; their cries were 

 answered from other hiding-places, and immediately 

 after the war whoop ceased, and a hush as of death 

 reigned as before. 



Lou listened to the wailing cry and sank back appalled 



