It was hateful to have to recross that savannah again, to leave
the woodland shadows where I had hoped to find Rima; but I was
powerless: I was a prisoner once more, the lost captive recovered
and not yet pardoned, probably never to be pardoned. Only by
means of my own cunning could I be saved, and Nuflo, poor old
man, must take his chance.
Again and again as we tramped over the barren ground, and when we
climbed the ridge, I was compelled to stand still to recover
breath, explaining to Piake that I had been travelling day and
night, with no meat during the last three days, so that I was
exhausted. This was an exaggeration, but it was necessary to
account in some way for the faintness I experienced during our
walk, caused less by fatigue and want of food than by anguish of
mind.
At intervals I talked to him, asking after all the other members
of the community by name. At last, thinking only of Rima, I
asked him if any other person or persons besides his people came
to the wood now or lived there.
He said no. "Once," I said, "there was a daughter of the Didi, a
girl you all feared: is she there now?"
He looked at me with suspicion and then shook his head.
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