With a cry of anguish I started to my feet and was
about to rush away towards the village when a dazzling flash of
lightning made me pause for a moment. When it vanished I turned
a last look on the girl, and her face was deathly pale, and her
hair looked blacker than night; and as she looked she stretched
out her arms towards me and uttered a low, wailing cry.
"Good-bye for ever!" I murmured, and turning once more from her,
rushed away like one crazed into the wood. But in my confusion I
had probably taken the wrong direction, for instead of coming out
in a few minutes into the open border of the forest, and on to
the savannah, I found myself every moment getting deeper among
the trees. I stood still, perplexed, but could not shake off the
conviction that I had started in the right direction. Eventually
I resolved to keep on for a hundred yards or so and then, if no
opening appeared, to turn back and retrace my steps. But this
was no easy matter. I soon became entangled in a dense
undergrowth, which so confused me that at last I confessed
despairingly to myself that for the first time in this wood I was
hopelessly lost.
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