midnight
Zinti looked at her in question . `` It may well be so , '' he said sadly , `` but I pray that it is not so , for she is the best of chieftainesses . At least we have our own lives to save , so let us go on , '' and again they pressed forward through the gathering gloom . Soon it grew dark , and had her guide been any other man than Zinti Suzanne must have stopped where she was till the moon rose at midnight . But Zinti could find any path that his feet had trod even in the dark ; yes , although it ran through piled-up rocks on the mountain side , and was cut with the course of streams which must be forded . In wading through one of these rivulets , Suzanne struck her bare ankle against a stone and lamed herself , so that from this time forward , shivering and wet with water , for her hurt was so sharp and sudden that she had fallen in the stream , she was forced to walk leaning on Zinti 's shoulder , and indeed over some rough places he was obliged to carry her . Now again Zinti wished to abandon that heavy child , for strong though he was the weight of the two of them proved almost more than he could bear , but Suzanne would not listen to him .