Then there were two other terrors against she must fight, the darkness
and the dread of Jacob Meyer. Perhaps the darkness was the worse of
them. To live in that hideous gloom in which their single lamp, for she
dared burn no more lest the oil should give out, seemed but as one star
to the whole night, ah! who that had not endured it could know what it
meant? There the sick man, yonder the grinning skeletons, around the
blackness and the silence, and beyond these again a miserable death,
or Jacob Meyer. But of him Benita saw nothing, though once or twice she
thought that she heard his voice raving outside the wall which they had
built. If so, either he did not try to pull it down, or he failed in
the attempt, or perhaps he feared that should he succeed, he would be
greeted by a bullet. So at last she gave up thinking about him. Should
he force his way into the cave she must deal with the situation as best
she could. Meanwhile, her father's strength was sinking fast.
Three awful days went by in this fashion, and the end drew near.
Although she tried to force herself to it, Benita could not swallow
enough food to keep up her strength. Now that the passage was closed the
atmosphere of this old vault, for it was nothing more, thickened by
the smoke of the fire which she was obliged to burn, grew poisonous and
choked her.
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