Sunday passed and Sunday night; Monday and Monday night. Judith knew
that she had accomplished nothing, except perhaps to make Ruth believe
that she was very much of a coward. In Ruth's mad brain that was
little enough, since this did not allay her cunning watchfulness. Then
Judith began to do something else, something actively. Just to be
occupied, was something. Her fingers selected the largest, thickest
branch from her bed of fir-boughs. It was perhaps a couple of inches
in diameter and heavy, because it was green. Silently, cautious of a
twig snapped, she began with her fingers to strip the branch, tough and
pliable. Then the limb must be cut into a length which would make it a
club to be used in a cramped space. She found a bit of stone, hard
granite, which had scaled from the walls and which had a rough edge.
With this, working many a quiet hour, she at last cut in two the
fir-bough. She lifted it in her hands, to feel the weight of it,
before she thrust it under her bed to lie hidden there against possible
need. Poor thing as it was, she felt no longer utterly defenseless.
Once Mad Ruth, lighting the lantern, had dropped a good match. When
she had gone, Judith secured it hastily, hiding it as if it were gold.
She knew that now and then Mad Ruth went down the cliffs and to the
cabin across the chasm. Always at night and at the darkest hour. When
she heard her go, Judith rose swiftly and went to the heavy door.
Always she found it locked; her shaking at it hardly budged the heavy
timbers. But though she could not see it, she studied it with her
fingers until she had a picture of it in her mind. A picture that only
increased her hopelessness. Barehanded she could never hope to break
it down or push it aside. And above it and below, and on each side,
were the solid walls of stone.
She no longer knew what day it was. She scarcely knew if it were day
or night. But, setting herself something to do so that she would not
go mad, mad as Mad Ruth, she secured for herself another weapon.
Another bit of stone which her groping fingers had found and hidden
with her club; a jagged, ugly rock half the size of a man's head. Some
little scraps of bread and meat, hoarded from her scanty meals, she hid
in her blouse.
"If I could stun her, just stun her," she got into the way of
whispering to herself. "Not kill her outright--just stun her----"
At last, seeing that she must work her own salvation with the crude
weapons given her, Judith told herself that she could wait no longer.
Another day and another and she would be weak from the confinement and
poor food and nervous, wakeful hours. She must act while the strength
was in her. And, if Trevors had spoken the truth, if there were a man
to deal with outside--well, she must shut her mind to that until she
came to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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