Then, as the light faded, she rode across the open _veldt_ to the rough road by which they must come.
It wound away into the gathering dusk where no lights gleamed, and a strong sense of desolation came to her, as it were, out of the desert and gripped her soul.

For the first time she looked forward with foreboding.
None came along the lonely track.

She heard no sound of hoofs.
She tried to whistle a tune to keep herself cheery, but very soon it failed.

The silent immensity of the _veldt_ enveloped her.

She had a forlorn feeling of being the only living being in all that vastness, except for a small uneasy spirit out of the great solitudes that wandered to and fro and sometimes fanned her with an icy breath that made her start and shiver.
She turned her horse's head at last.