The Wood Beyond the World Read online

  CHAPTER VIII: WALTER WENDS THE WASTE

  Day was yet young when he awoke: he leapt to his feet, and went down tothe stream and drank of its waters, and washed the night off him in apool thereof, and then set forth on his way again. When he had gone somethree hours, the road, which had been going up all the way, but somewhatgently, grew steeper, and the bent on either side lowered, and lowered,till it sank at last altogether, and then was he on a rough mountain-neckwith little grass, and no water; save that now and again was a soft placewith a flow amidst of it, and such places he must needs fetch a compassabout, lest he be mired. He gave himself but little rest, eating what heneeds must as he went. The day was bright and calm, so that the sun wasnever hidden, and he steered by it due south. All that day he went, andfound no more change in that huge neck, save that whiles it was more andwhiles less steep. A little before nightfall he happened on a shallowpool some twenty yards over; and he deemed it good to rest there, sincethere was water for his avail, though he might have made somewhat moreout of the tail end of the day.

  When dawn came again he awoke and arose, nor spent much time over hisbreakfast; but pressed on all he might; and now he said to himself, thatwhatsoever other peril were athwart his way, he was out of the danger ofthe chase of his own folk.

  All this while he had seen no four-footed beast, save now and again ahill-fox, and once some outlandish kind of hare; and of fowl but veryfew: a crow or two, a long-winged hawk, and twice an eagle high up aloft.

  Again, the third night, he slept in the stony wilderness, which still ledhim up and up. Only toward the end of the day, himseemed that it hadbeen less steep for a long while: otherwise nought was changed, on allsides it was nought but the endless neck, wherefrom nought could be seen,but some other part of itself. This fourth night withal he found nowater whereby he might rest, so that he awoke parched, and longing todrink just when the dawn was at its coldest.

  But on the fifth morrow the ground rose but little, and at last, when hehad been going wearily a long while, and now, hard on noontide, histhirst grieved him sorely, he came on a spring welling out from under ahigh rock, the water wherefrom trickled feebly away. So eager was he todrink, that at first he heeded nought else; but when his thirst was fullyquenched his eyes caught sight of the stream which flowed from the well,and he gave a shout, for lo! it was running south. Wherefore it was witha merry heart that he went on, and as he went, came on more streams, allrunning south or thereabouts. He hastened on all he might, but indespite of all the speed he made, and that he felt the land now goingdown southward, night overtook him in that same wilderness. Yet when hestayed at last for sheer weariness, he lay down in what he deemed by themoonlight to be a shallow valley, with a ridge at the southern endthereof.

  He slept long, and when he awoke the sun was high in the heavens, andnever was brighter or clearer morning on the earth than was that. Hearose and ate of what little was yet left him, and drank of the water ofa stream which he had followed the evening before, and beside which hehad laid him down; and then set forth again with no great hope to come onnew tidings that day. But yet when he was fairly afoot, himseemed thatthere was something new in the air which he breathed, that was soft andbore sweet scents home to him; whereas heretofore, and that especiallyfor the last three or four days, it had been harsh and void, like theface of the desert itself.

  So on he went, and presently was mounting the ridge aforesaid, and, asoft happens when one climbs a steep place, he kept his eyes on theground, till he felt he was on the top of the ridge. Then he stopped totake breath, and raised his head and looked, and lo! he was verily on thebrow of the great mountain-neck, and down below him was the hanging ofthe great hill-slopes, which fell down, not slowly, as those he had beenthose days a-mounting, but speedily enough, though with little of brokenplaces or sheer cliffs. But beyond this last of the desert there wasbefore him a lovely land of wooded hills, green plains, and littlevalleys, stretching out far and wide, till it ended at last in great bluemountains and white snowy peaks beyond them.

  Then for very surprise of joy his spirit wavered, and he felt faint anddizzy, so that he was fain to sit down a while and cover his face withhis hands. Presently he came to his sober mind again, and stood up andlooked forth keenly, and saw no sign of any dwelling of man. But he saidto himself that that might well be because the good and well-grassed landwas still so far off, and that he might yet look to find men and theirdwellings when he had left the mountain wilderness quite behind him: Sotherewith he fell to going his ways down the mountain, and lost littletime therein, whereas he now had his livelihood to look to.