We hadn't waited more than another hour before Joe appeared, and walked straight to where we were waiting. "They've gone, leaving one behind." I listened as he told us that their number had proven to be closer to eighty strong. Apparently there were more servants with the group than the original count had revealed.
Joe led us to where Terry and Jack had been watching the open forest clearing surrounding the boulder. Terry was there, but Jack was nowhere to be seen as we approached slowly. When we'd crept up to where Terry was watching the meadow from, and settled in to wait and watch, he quietly related how the camp had come to life just after the four of them had nearly stumbled into it this morning.
"I can't help but feel that we really were seen, but this group seems to be as anxious to avoid direct contact as we are!"
"What makes you say that?" asked Lance.
"I don't know exactly. I just feel it, that's all. How else do you explain their not trying to drive us from the area, since there's little doubt in my mind that we were seen before we made it back into the forest. The odd part is that the only thing the women did, was to increase their guard, but other than that, nothing."
"The other thing that's odd is that there was a lot of discussion before they actually broke camp and left. It seemed almost an afterthought when they chained that one to the tree, and stripped her, not only of her clothes, but a baby too! Last is that they went on south, not back to the City of Towers. That's what I'm really puzzled over. Why go south? What's out there for them?"
Lance listened to what Terry had to tell him, then asked, "Where'd Jack go off to?"
Terry grimaced, then said, "He's following the women. But I think he's following to close, they won't be hard to follow there are so many of them. They'll leave a trail we could follow even in three of four days time."
"Did he say when he'd be back?" Lance sounded worried.
"Yes. He said that if they went straight south he'd be back tonight, but if they were circling, he'd wait for us at their first turn.
"Good." Was the extent of Lance's reply on the subject. "What about the one they left? What do you know about her?"
"That one! She's mad as a hornet, that's for sure. It took four guards to hold her down while her collar was put on, and even at that there's at least two of those guards that won't be ready for action any time soon. Fact is," Terry looked through his glass in the direction of the tree and boulder I'd been attached to when my men found me. "I think she'll figure out how to break the chain soon. She's been worrying at it since the main party left, and just about has it wound up tight enough to break."
When Terry had finished his narration, Lance took the glass and watched the woman working at the chain attached to her neck. He'd been watching for quite a while before he handed the glass back to Terry, commenting, "She's damned determined, I'll say that for her!"
By now my curiosity was too much to handle, so I asked Terry, "Do you mind if I have a look?"
"Sure, go ahead." and handed me the glass.
I'd never used any kind of field glass before, there hadn't ever been any need to. Terry and Lance had made using the hand held telescope seem easy while they'd been looking through it. The view through the telescope, in my shaking hands, was dizzying, to say the least. Focus! First I had to make whatever was in the glass stand still, then maybe.
The men must have had more than a few grins while I tried to get anything to become recognizable in that magnifying monocle. It took a while to find the "Rest" that made any image stand still enough to need any focus. Then, it took a while to get the twisting, with pressure that allowed the eye-piece to move smoothly, not to mention slowly enough to find anything close to a clear image.
The last bit was to find myself in the very narrow field of vision. At the distance I was looking, a small tree filled most of the lens, in detail. Finally, several minutes later, I found the boulder, "Good. I'm close." was my thought. Slowly, ever so slowly, I scanned the area around the boulder, and finally found her. Well, at least a part of her!
The problem was, I've never really studied the female anatomy, and was having trouble finding her head. What I thought was her shoulder, turned out to be a cheek! When I moved to where I thought her should be, I was looking at her breast, I think, so I moved again, and this time must have gone the wrong way, and discovered her pubes were just like mine when they were wet with water and mud.
"Shit! How can I tell who she is if I can't find her face?" I handed the glass back to Terry.
Dusk was upon us by the time Jack appeared out of the trees. There were smiles all around in greeting, then he reported that the company of women had continued south at a good clip, "As if they have a destination in mind. But where? What's down there?" Jack shrugged, and filled his mouth with cold food.
"We're alone then?" Lance asked the air.
"Except for the woman out there, yes." Jack replied.
"Then let's go see who she is, and why they left her there." Lance arose as he spoke, "But just in case we missed something, just you and Joe go try to talk to her, the rest of us will wait here."
For the first time since Jack's arrival I added my opinion. "Why don't you send me with them? It might help make her understand she's not in any danger from us."
Lance stared at me for a moment, the said. "Go with them."
Jack, Joe, and I moved a good distance away from the rest of them before we stepped out of the forest, into the meadow, and walked directly to the woman chained to the lone tree standing next to that infamous rock.