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the storm again, his left arm about the slave's neck. In a flash of lightning
he saw the escape capsule, far downstream, deep in the water, listing. The
river churned inches from the opened hatch. He did not doubt, from its depth
in the water, that the capsule had already shipped a considerable amount of
water. He was afraid to release the branch. He did not know if he could reach
the shore. An uprooted tree swept past.
"Look!" he cried, clinging to the branch. Downstream, in the darkness, there
was a sudden bluish glow, and then the escape capsule, its entire large, oval
surface, began to crackle with sparks and flame. Then again there was
darkness. "Beware!" he said, and braced himself, for the trunk of a tree, like
a spear, smote into the branch to which they clung, spinning it about. "Are
you all
right?" asked the gladiator. "Yes, Master," cried the slave. There was now,
under the roar of the storm, another roar, somewhere ahead, a roar which grew
progressively louder. The gladiator tried to peer through the darkness and
rain. He fought for breath. The water must have reached yet another system in
the escape capsule, for, far downstream, it began again to glow, but this time
with an orangish color. And then, suddenly, it was dark. It was as though the
glow had been suddenly snapped off, like a light. A part of a tree swept by, a
catlike beast clinging to its trunk.
Its fur was sleek with rain. The branch to which the gladiator and the slave
clung caught for a moment on another rock. "What is the noise, not the storm?"
the gladiator asked himself, confused. "Is it a thousand beasts? Is it thunder
from afar?" "Too," he asked himself, "what of the capsule? How did it cease so
suddenly to glow?" The roar was now becoming even louder. It competed with the
wind, the storm. Suddenly he heard a wild screech of terror from ahead, which
then faded suddenly. It had to be the animal which they had seen, but moments
before. Now the roaring was deafening. In the darkness the gladiator, as the
slave cried out in terror, in protest, thrust away from the branch, and, with
one arm, as he could, fought for the shore. He was swept muchly downstream,
but twice caught against rocks. Then, when the roar was unmistakable, even to
one confused in the darkness, one wrought with titanic strain, one exhausted
from physical effort, he got the mud and gravel of the riverbed beneath his
feet, and, the slave terrified and bedraggled in his arms, made his way to the
bank. In the next flash of lightning he saw, holding the slave, the edge of
the falls, some yards away. Curious he went to its brink. The drop was
something in the nature of a hundred feet. He saw the sopped, catlike beast
slide through the water, its ears back, and scratch its way up to the shore.
It was possible, he thought, that they might have survived the fall. To be
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sure, it is difficult to make judgments on such matters. He did not see the
capsule. He did not know if it were still afloat or not. After resting for a
time, he once again lifted the slave in his arms, who was trembling, and began
to make his way back upstream, to where they had salvaged some of their goods.
After a time the rains stopped. He had then managed to build a small fire.
This was managed with leaves and brush from rain-sheltered places. The fire
was lit with the lighter, from the survival kit, one of the objects removed
earlier from the capsule. They had then stripped and set about drying their
clothes. His had dried first, easily, as they were lighter, less voluminous,
less cumbersome. Janina had been kneeling near the fire, drying her hair, when
they first heard the horns.
"There are several horns now," said Janina.
"They are on this side of the river," said the gladiator. "We will cross."
"Not the river!" said Janina.
"The level is much subsided," said the gladiator.
"I fear the river!" said Janina.
"This," said the gladiator, "will prevent you from being swept away."
He knotted a rope about her neck.
"That is its only purpose, is it not, Master?" she asked.
"What do you think?" he asked.
She looked down, shyly, smiling. Janina, in the arms of strong masters, had
learned her womanhood.
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