Glancing to either side I saw
that the line extended completely around us, to the right and
left.
The sight seemed to paralyze me. I tried to call to Harry--no
sound came from my eager lips. I tried to put out my hand to
rouse him and to pick up my spear; my arms remained motionless at
my side.
Desiree lay close beside me; I could not even turn my head to see
if she, too, saw, but kept my eyes, as though fascinated, on that
silent black line approaching through the darkness.
"Will they leap now--now--now?" I asked myself with every beat of
my pulse.
It could not be much longer--they were now so close that each
black, tense form was in clear outline not fifty feet away.
Chapter XXIII.
WE ARE TWO.
Whether I would have been able to rouse myself to action before
the shock of the assault was actually upon us, I shall never
know.
It was not fear that held me, for I felt none; I think that dimly
and half unconsciously I saw in that black line, silently
creeping upon us, the final and inexorable approach of the
remorseless fate that had pursued us ever since we had dashed
after Desiree into the cave of the devil, rendering our every
effort futile, our most desperate struggles the laughing-stock of
the gods.
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