I was determined to make a good ending, since that was all now
left to me. In that hour I had forgotten about everything--about the
peril of Virginia, even about Elspeth and the others in the fort on the
hill-top. There comes a time to every one when the world narrows for him
to a strait alley, with Death at the end of it, and all his thoughts are
fixed on that waiting enemy of mankind.
My senses were blunted, and I took no note of the noises of the forest.
As I passed down a ravine a stone dropped behind me, but I did not
pause to wonder why. A twig crackled on my left, but it did not
disquiet me, and there was a rustling in the thicket which was not the
breeze. I marked nothing, as I plodded on with vacant mind and eye. So
when I tripped on a vine and fell, I was scarcely surprised when I
found I could not rise. Men had sprung up silently around me, and I was
pinned by many hands.
They trussed me with ropes, binding my hands cruelly behind my back,
and swathing my legs till not a muscle could move. My pistols hung
idle, and the ropes drove the hafts into my flesh. This is the end,
thought I, and I did not even grieve at my impotence. My courage now
was of the passive kind, not to act but to endure. Always I kept
telling myself that I must be brave, for Ringan had praised my courage,
and I had a conviction that nothing that man could do would shake me.
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