For a long time she lay closely hid among the rocks, within twenty yards of the cave's mouth, expecting every moment to see the fugitives issue from its dark recesses.

But they did not reappear.

All at once it occurred to the girl that there might possibly be an exit from the cavern at the other end of it, and that, while she was idly waiting there, her little mistress and her savage captor might be hastening down the mountain far beyond her reach.
Rendered desperate by this idea, she quitted her place of concealment, and ran recklessly into the cavern.

But the place was dark as Erebus, and the ground was so rugged that she tripped and fell before she had advanced into it more than fifty yards.
Bruised by the fall, and overawed by the gloom of her situation, the poor girl lay still for some time where she had fallen, with bated breath, and listening intently; but no sound struck her ear save the beating of her own heart, which appeared to her unnaturally loud.

Under an impulse of terror, she rose, and ran back into the open air.
Here it occurred to her that she might perhaps find the other outlet to the cave,--supposing that one really existed,--by going round the hill and carefully examining the ground on the other side.