It was at the door. She could hear it fumbling with the frail
barrier. What could it be? It made no sound by which she might
identify it. She raised herself upon her hands and knees and crept
stealthily the little distance to the doorway, her spear clutched
tightly in her hand. Whatever the thing was, it was evidently
attempting to gain entrance without awakening her. It was just
beyond the pitiful little contraption of slender boughs that she
had bound together with grasses and called a door--only a few inches
lay between the thing and her. Rising to her knees she reached out
with her left hand and felt until she found a place where a crooked
branch had left an opening a couple of inches wide near the center
of the barrier. Into this she inserted the point of her spear. The
thing must have heard her move within for suddenly it abandoned its
efforts for stealth and tore angrily at the obstacle. At the same
moment Jane thrust her spear forward with all her strength. She
felt it enter flesh. There was a scream and a curse from without,
followed by the crashing of a body through limbs and foliage. Her
spear was almost dragged from her grasp, but she held to it until
it broke free from the thing it had pierced.
It was Obergatz; the curse had told her that. From below came
no further sound.
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