Meanwhile Smith was having a similar experience with Dulnop. The young
fellow was, like Corrus, alone at the time; and he, too, was made very
excited and restless by what he saw.
Billie was unable to work upon her bee. Supreme retired to a hive just
before dusk, but remained wide awake and more or less active, feeding
voraciously, for hours upon hours. When she finally did nap, she fell
asleep on such short notice that the architect was taken off her guard.
The bee seemed to all but jump into slumberland.
The doctor also had to wait for Rolla. The woman sat for a long time in
the growing dusk, looming out pensively over the valley. Corrus was
somewhere within a mile or two, and so Kinney was not surprised to see
the herdsman's image dancing, tantalizingly, before Rolla's eyes. She
was thinking of him with all her might.
Presently she shivered with the growing coolness, and went into a rough
hut, which she shared with Cunora. The girl was already asleep on a heap
of freshly gathered brush. Rolla, delightfully free of any need to
prepare for her night's rest--such as locking any doors or cleaning her
teeth--made herself comfortable beside her friend. Two or three yawns,
and the doctor's chance came.
Two minutes later Rolla sat bolt upright, at the same time giving out a
sharp cry of amazement and alarm. Instantly Cunora awoke.
"What is it, Rolla?" terror-stricken.
"Hush!" The older woman got up and went to the opening which served as a
door. There she hung a couple of skins, arranging them carefully so that
no bee might enter. Coming back to Cunora, she brought her voice nearly
to a whisper:
"Cunora, I have had a wonderful dream! Ye must believe me when I say
that it were more than a mere dream; 'twere a message from the great
god, Mownoth, or I be mad!"
"Rolla!" The girl was more anxious than frightened now. "Ye speak
wildly! Quiet thyself, and tell what thou didst see!"
"It were not easy to describe," said Rolla, getting herself under
control. "I dreamed that a man, very pale of face and most curiously
clad, did approach me while I was at work. He smiled and spake kindly,
in a language I could not understand; but I know he meant full well.
"This be the curious thing, Cunora: He picked up a handful of leaves
from the ground and laid them on the trough at my side. Then, from some
place in his garments he produced a tiny stick of white wood, with a tip
made of some dark-red material. This he held before mine eyes, in the
dream; and then spake very reassuringly, as though bidding me not to be
afraid.
"Well he might! Cunora, he took that tiny stick in his hand and moved
the tip along the surface of the trough; and, behold, a miracle!"
"What happened?" breathlessly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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