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Show 13 How long he slept before he heard the voices he could not tell. The night was as dark as the fear that gripped his heart. "They have overtaken me!" He peered out from the cave and saw them building a fire near the stream of water. He was trapped! He had been so careful not to leave a trail. But then, he was only a boy and they were experienced hunters. He should have known he could not outwit them. In his disappointment he thought of Supi and remembered what the medicine man had said to him. "If your quest is one of love, and you are willing to sacrifice even your life for it, then the desires of your heart shall be fulfilled." Long after his enemies slept, Nuiji lay thinking. Reason began to replace fear. Perhaps he was not trapped. Could it be the Great Spirit was still with him? Tonight he would have been a prisoner once more, but the cave had saved him. Here he would stay. "Tomorrow they will hunt for me and find nothing," he said with a smile, "and before the sun sets four more times I will be home." He slept light, and with the hunteriis first movements in the early morning he was awake. Nuiji did not leave the cave all day. When his body ached from lying down, he would sit up. When his legs cramped from sitting up, he would lie down. It was a long day, but he was alive when it drew to a close, and he was still free. The hostile braves returned at dusk, as he thought they would. He could tell they were discouraged and puzzled. They talked around the fire as they ate, then rolled out their mats and went to sleep. Nuiji was terribly thirsty, and seeing the water so close was torture. Should he risk crawling to the stream while his enemies slept? "No," he said silently, "I must wait. To have thirst is better than to die." His |