and I had time to conclude that, whip-
ped and almost breathless though I
was, I was still alive.

And then I saw a curious sight. Down
the street in every direction came rush-
ing hatless men and women. Here and
there a wild-eyed horse was being
lashed along. All the town was coming.
They were in their work clothes, in
their slippers, in their wrappers -- they
were in anything and everything. Some
of them sobbed as they ran, some called
aloud names that I knew. They were
fathers and mothers looking for their
children.

And who was that -- that woman with
a white face, with hair falling about her
shoulders, where it had fallen as she
ran -- that woman whose breath came
between her teeth strangely and who
called my name over and over, bleat-
ingly, as a mother sheep calls its lamb?
At first I did not recognise her, and
then, at last, I knew. And that creature
with the rolling eyes and the curious
ash-coloured face who, mumbling some-
thing over and over in his throat, came
for me, and snatched me up and wiped