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Darkness had long since infolded us; we had slackened to a walk,forward between impervious walls of blackness And always on the curtain of the inky shadow I saw Elsin's pallid face gazing upon rew so real that I could have cried out in h a blackness thick as the very shadows of the pit that hides lost souls!
At ht we halted for an hour The Oneida ate calmly; Lyn Montour tasted the parched corn, and drank at an unseen spring that bubbled a drear lament amid the rocks Then we descended into the Drowned Lands, feeling our spongy trail between osier, alder, andOnce, very far away, I saw a light, pale as a star, low shining on the marsh It was the Fish House, and ere near our journey's end--perhaps the end of all journeys, save that last swift trail upward a those thousand stars!
It was near to dae came out upon therush of wild ducks passing, the waking call of birds, twittering all around us in the darkness; the low undertone of the black water flowing to the Sacandaga
Over the quaking , now ankle-deep in cranberry, now up to our knees in h birch humround once more, with the oak- the east, andsteaure h the marsh, parallel, and close to me The Oneida stopped, stared, then drew his blanket around hireat oak
We had arrived at Thendara! Now, all around us in the dilade, tall forms moved--spectral shapes of shadowy substance that drifted hither and thither, passing, repassing, loom around, until I could scarce tell theh the trees around us
Slowly the heavens turned to palest gold, then to saffron All about us shadowy throngs arose to face the rising sun A moment of intense stillness, then a far, faint cry, "Koue!" And the glittering edge of the sun appeared above the wooded heights Blinding level rays fell on the painted faces of the sachee; the Oneida strode forward, head erect, and I, with a sign to the girl at my side, followed