Late,
one sunset, while there yet was daylight, she left the camp merely that
she might wander down the valley to the same spot where, at the same
hour, she had met Kenkenes on that last occasion of talk between them.
Moving slowly down the shadows, she saw a figure approaching. The
stature of the new-comer identified him. The head was up, the step
slow, the bearing expectant. In the one scant lapse between two throbs
of her heart, Rachel knew her lover, remembered all the power of his
attraction, and realized that her joy and love could carry her beyond
her fortitude and resolution.
Just ahead of her, not farther than three paces, a long fragment of
rock had fallen from above and leaned against the wall. There was an
ample space formed by its slant against the cliff and almost before she
knew it, she had crept into this crevice. Cowering in the dusk, she
clutched at her loud-beating heart and listened intently.
There was no sound of his steps on the rough roadway of the valley and
though she watched eagerly from her hiding-place, she did not see him
pass. After a long time she emerged. He was gone.
When she looked in the dust she found that his footprints turned not
far from her hiding-place and led toward the Nile.
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