I had nowhere to stay except in the cave, and I couldn’t stay there another night with the dead bodies. As soon as I woke I added wood to the fire to make it brighter, and then I tried to think what to do. The panther was a big heavy thing, and it was all I could do to roll the cat off the old woman. Blood had splashed on everything and run out on the dirt and rocks. I held the cat’s hind legs and pulled but couldn’t really move it. I’d have to leave the panther where it was. I looked outside. It was a cold gray day. The clouds hung just above the bare trees. The low sky made you feel there wasn’t any room in the world. The laurel leaves had rolled up like pipes against the cold. It was the kind of day that made you want to hunker by the fire. I didn’t have a shovel or spade or mattock. There wasn’t anything to dig with but the ax, and I didn’t want to ruin the blade by driving it into the ground. The panther was too big to move, but surely I could drag the old woman.
