It was necessary that he should know her
intentions and direct her in several particulars. A farm vehicle must also
be ordered, for Joan would have to leave the farm at a very early hour.
Strung to a tension of nerves above all power of fatigue, in a whirl of
excitement and wholly heedless of the mysterious nocturnal conditions
around her, Joan determined to seek Uncle Thomas directly, and with that
intention, instead of climbing the hill to Drift and so placing herself in
a position of safety, passed the smithy and cots which lie by Buryas Bridge
and prepared to ascend the coomb in this fashion and so reach her friends
the quicker. She knew her road blindfold, but was quite ignorant of the
altered character of the stream. Joan had not, however, traveled above a
quarter of a mile through the orchard lands when she began to realize the
difficulties. Once well out of the orchards, she believed that the meadows
would offer an easier path, and thus, buried in her own thoughts, proceeded
with many stumblings and splashings over the wet grasses and earth, under a
darkness that made progress very slow despite her familiarity with the way.
Then it was that, deep hidden in the night and all alone, where the stream
ran into a pool above big bowlders which banked it--at the spot, indeed,
where she had reigned over the milky meadowsweets seated on a granite
throne--the vibrating thread of Joan Tregenza's little life was sharply
severed and she died with none to see or hear, in that tumult of rising
waters which splashed and gurgled and rose on the skirts of the coming
storm.
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