The Obstacle Race | Page 9

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.
Then a voice spoke. "I say, do open your eyes, if you don't mind!
You're really not dead. You've only had a tumble."
That voice awoke her quite effectually. The mixture of entreaty and
common sense it contained strangely stirred her curiosity. She opened
her eyes wide upon the speaker.
"Hullo!" she said faintly.
He was kneeling by her side, looking closely into her face, and the first
thing that struck her was the extreme brightness of his eyes. They
shone like black onyx.
He responded at once, his voice very low and rapid. "It's perfectly all
right. You needn't be afraid. I was just in time to catch you. There's an
easier way down close by, but you wouldn't see it in this light. Feeling
better now? Like to sit up?"
She awoke to the fact that she was propped against his knee. She sat up,
still gasping a little, but shrank as she realized the narrowness of the
ledge upon which she was resting.
He thrust out a protecting arm in front of her. "It's all right. You're
absolutely safe. Don't shiver like that! You couldn't go over if you tried.
Don't look if it makes you giddy!"
She looked again into his face, and again was struck by the amazing
keenness of his eyes.
"How did you get here?" she said.

"Oh, it's easy enough when you know the way. I was just coming to
help you when you came over. You didn't hear me shout?"
"No. They were all making such a horrid noise." She suppressed a
shudder. "Have they gone now?"
"Yes, the brutes! They scooted. I'm going after them directly."
"Oh, please don't!" she said hastily. "Not for the world! I don't want to
be left alone here. I've had enough of it."
She tried to smile with the words, but it was rather a trembling attempt.
He abandoned his intention at once.
"All right. It'll keep. Look here, shall I help you up? You'll feel better
on the top."
"I think I had better stay here for a minute," Juliet said. "I--I'm afraid I
shall make an idiot of myself if I don't."
"No, you won't. You'll be all right." He thrust an abrupt arm around her
shoulders, gripping them hard to still her