Several men were coming along the path that she had travelled.  She saw them vaguely in the dimness a little way below her, and realized that her retreat in that direction was cut off.  Swiftly she considered the position, for there was no time to be lost.  To pursue the path would be to go farther and farther away from the village and civilization, but for the moment she saw no other course.  On one hand the gorse bushes made a practically impenetrable rampart, and on the other the cliff overhung the shore which at that point was nearly two hundred feet below.  From where she stood, no way of escape presented itself, and she turned in despair to follow the path a little farther.  But as she did so, she heard another wild shout from behind her, and it flashed upon her with a stab of dismay that her light dress had betrayed her.  She had been sighted by the intruders, and they were pursuing her.  She heard the stamp and scuffle of running feet that were not too sure of their stability, and with the sound something very like panic entered into Juliet.  Her heart jolted within her, and the impulse to flee like a hunted hare was for a second almost too urgent to be withstood.  That she did withstand it was a matter for life-long thankfulness in her estimation.  The temptation was great, but she did not spring from the stock that runs away.  She pulled herself up sharply with burning cheeks, and deliberately turned and waited.

They came up the path, yelling like hounds on a scent, while she stood perfectly erect and motionless, facing them.  There were five of them, hulking youths all inflamed by drink if not actually tipsy, and they came around her with shouts of idiotic laughter and incoherent joking, evidently taking her for a village girl.

She stood her ground with her back to the cliff-edge, not yielding an inch, contempt in every line.  “Will you kindly go your way,” she said, “and allow me to go mine?”

They responded with yells of derision, and one young man, emboldened by the jeers of his companions, came close to her and leered into her face of rigid disdain.  “I’m damned if I won’t have a kiss first!” he swore, and flung a rough arm about her.

Juliet moved then with the fierce suddenness of a wild thing trapped.  She wrenched herself from him in furious disgust.

“You hound!” she began to say.  But the word was never fully uttered, for as it sprang to her lips, it went into a desperate cry.  The ground had given way beneath her feet, and she fell straight backwards over that awful edge.  For the fraction of an instant she saw the stars in the deep blue sky above her, then, like the snap of a spring, they vanished into darkness...

It was a darkness that spread and spread like an endless sea, submerging all things.  No light could penetrate it; only a few vague sounds and impressions somehow filtered through.  And then—­how it happened she had not the faintest notion—­she was aware of someone lifting her out of the depth that had received her, and there came again to her nostrils that subtle aroma of cigarette-smoke that had mingled with the scent of the gorse.  She came to herself gasping, but for some reason she dared not look up.  That single glimpse of the wheeling universe seemed to have sealed her vision.