"
Besides--and this was the best reason--there was
no other way. We had gone too far to turn back, and, as our proverb
says, "It is idle to swallow the cow and choke on the tail."
I put it all to Elspeth.
She looked very scared. "But my uncle will go mad if he does not find
me."
"It will be worse for him if he is never to find you again. Shalah says
it would be as easy to get you back over the Rappahannock as for a
child to cross a winter torrent. I don't say it's pleasant either way,
but there's a good hope of safety in the hills, and there's none
anywhere else."
She sat for a little with her eyes downcast. "I am in your hands," she
said at last, "Oh, the foolish girl I have been! I will be a drag and a
danger to you all."
Then I took her hand. "Elspeth," I said, "it's me will be the proud man
if I can save you. I would rather be the salvation of you than the King
of the Tidewater. And so says Shalah, and so will say all of us."
But I do not think she heard me. She had checked her tears, but her
wits were far away, grieving for her uncle's pain, and envisaging the
desperate future. At the first water we reached she bathed her face and
eyes, and using the pool as a mirror, adjusted her hair. Then she
smiled bravely, "I will try to be a true comrade, like a man," she
said.
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