Three seconds more, and with a savage curse, Hadden had remounted the pony and was riding for his life towards the river, which a while later he crossed in safety.

CHAPTER VI

THE GHOST OF THE DEAD

When Nanea leapt from the dizzy platform that overhung the Pool of Doom, a strange fortune befell her.  Close in to the precipice were many jagged rocks, and on these the waters of the fall fell and thundered, bounding from them in spouts of spray into the troubled depths of the foss beyond.  It was on these stones that the life was dashed out from the bodies of the wretched victims who were hurled from above.  But Nanea, it will be remembered, had not waited to be treated thus, and as it chanced the strong spring with which she had leapt to death carried her clear of the rocks.  By a very little she missed the edge of them and striking the deep water head first like some practised diver, she sank down and down till she thought that she would never rise again.  Yet she did rise, at the end of the pool in the mouth of the rapid, along which she sped swiftly, carried down by the rush of the water.  Fortunately there were no rocks here; and, since she was a skilful swimmer, she escaped the danger of being thrown against the banks.

For a long distance she was borne thus till at length she saw that she was in a forest, for trees cut off the light from the water, and their drooping branches swept its surface.  One of these Nanea caught with her hand, and by the help of it she dragged herself from the River of Death whence none had escaped before.  Now she stood upon the bank gasping but quite unharmed; there was not a scratch on her body; even her white garment was still fast about her neck.

But though she had suffered no hurt in her terrible voyage, so exhausted was Nanea that she could scarcely stand.  Here the gloom was that of night, and shivering with cold she looked helplessly to find some refuge.  Close to the water’s edge grew an enormous yellow-wood tree, and to this she staggered—­thinking to climb it, and seek shelter in its boughs where, as she hoped, she would be safe from wild beasts.  Again fortune befriended her, for at a distance of a few feet from the ground there was a great hole in the tree which, she discovered, was hollow.  Into this hole she crept, taking her chance of its being the home of snakes or other evil creatures, to find that the interior was wide and warm.  It was dry also, for at the bottom of the cavity lay a foot or more of rotten tinder and moss brought there by rats or birds.  Upon this tinder she lay down, and covering herself with the moss and leaves soon sank into sleep or stupor.