If Waldo viewed the newcomer with wonder, it was no less than the
wonder which the sight of him inspired in the breast of the hairy
one, for what he saw was as truly remarkable to his eyes as was his
appearance to those of the cultured Bostonian. And Waldo did indeed
present a most startling exterior. His six-feet-two was accentuated by
his extreme skinniness; his gray eyes looked weak and watery within the
inflamed circles which rimmed them, and which had been produced by loss
of sleep and much weeping.
His yellow hair was tangled and matted, and streaked with dirt and
blood. Blood stained his soiled and tattered ducks. His shirt was but a
mass of frayed ribbons held to him at all only by the neckband.
As he stood helplessly staring with bulging eyes at the awful figure
glowering at him from the forest his jaw dropped, his knees trembled,
and he seemed about to collapse from sheer terror.
Then the hideous man crouched and came creeping warily toward him.
With an agonized scream Waldo turned and fled toward the cliff. A quick
glance over his shoulder brought another series of shrieks from the
frightened fugitive, for it revealed not alone the fact that the awful
man was pursuing him, but that behind him raced at least a dozen more
equally frightful.
Waldo ran toward the cliffs only because that direction lay straight
away from his pursuers. He had no idea what he should do when he
reached the rocky barrier--he was far too frightened to think.
His pursuers were gaining upon him, their savage yells mingling with
his piercing cries and spurring him on to undreamed-of pinnacles of
speed.
As he ran, his knees came nearly to his shoulders at each frantic
bound; his left hand was extended far ahead, clutching wildly at the
air as though he were endeavoring to pull himself ahead, while his
right hand, still grasping the cudgel, described a rapid circle, like
the arm of a windmill gone mad. In action Waldo was an inspiring
spectacle.
At the foot of the cliff he came to a momentary halt, while he glanced
hurriedly about for a means of escape; but now he saw that the enemy
had spread out toward the right and left, leaving no means of escape
except up the precipitous side of the cliff. Up this narrow trails led
steeply from ledge to ledge.
In places crude ladders scaled perpendicular heights from one tier of
caves to the next above; but to Waldo the thing which confronted him
seemed absolutely unscalable, and then another backward glance showed
him the rapidly nearing enemy; and he launched himself at the face of
that seemingly impregnable barrier, clutching desperately with fingers
and toes.
His progress was impeded by the cudgel to which he still clung, but
he did not drop it; though why it would have been difficult to tell,
unless it was that his acts were now purely mechanical, there being no
room in his mind for aught else than terror.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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