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Show 137 My head reeled and ached and I couldn't think what to do about Hilde. Probably Gast was right - someone would soon come to find her, if the people in church had heard the terrible noise of the avalanche. Or would they have thought, from that distance, that it was only thunder? I didn't know what to do, whether to stay until I was sure that Hilde would be safe, or whether to run away right then, because as soon as the people of Hamelin discovered that their children were lost, they would kill me if I were in reach. Then I looked at Hilde and realized that she was no longer conscious. She was breathing, but she was unaware that I was there. I pulled off my shirt and covered her with it. At that moment fear for my life seized me in such great measure that I turned and fled, stumbling away from Hamelin, clutching my neck as I tried to gasp air past the flaming, throbbing pain in my throat. |