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THE SHADOW 261 |
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' He wasn't a man,' said Odu; 'he was a shadow; he had no thick to him!'
' Tell me more about him.'
' He came down the hill very black, walking like a bad giant, but spread flat. He was nothing but blackness. We were frightened the moment we saw him, but we did not run away; we stood and watched him. He came on as if he would walk over us. But before he reached us, he began to spread and spread, and grew bigger and bigger, till at last he was so big that he went out of our sight, and we saw him no more, and then he was upon us !'
' What do you mean by that ? '
'He was all black through between us, and we could not see one another; and then he was inside us.'
' How did you know he was inside you ? '
' He did me quite different. I felt like bad. I was not Odu any more—not the Odu I knew. I wanted to tear Sozo to pieces—not really, but like!'
He turned and hugged Sozo.
' It wasn't me, Sozo,' he sobbed. ' Eeally, deep down, it was Odu, loving you always ! And Odu came up, and knocked Naughty away. I grew sick, and thought I must kill myself to get out of the black. Then came a horrible laugh that had heard my think, and it set the air trembling about me. And then I suppose I ran away, but I did not know I had run away until I found myself running, fast as could, and all the rest running too. I would have stopped, but I never thought of it until I was out of the gate among the grass. Then I knew that I had run away from a shadow that wanted to be me and wasn't, and that I was the Odu that loved Sozo. It was the |
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