Chapter 49

But Kate did not act as if she heard. She just walked on and kept on walking until they came to a street that cut sharp to the left from the main street, and down which she turned. The men kept following her. Kate thought that at any moment, they would begin to say something, to do something. But what? She didn't want to think about that. She trotted up, panting. She kept a steady course until she was in an empty square almost entirely ringed by a grove of tall and huge girthed silk cotton trees.

She turned to see if the men were still following her, but they disappeared. She shivered. She kept moving, faster now. Across the square, the only break in the ring of giant trees was filled with a formidable fence of golden bamboo stakes driven deep into the ground and sharpened at their tops. A gate of bamboo painted red was set dead center of the fence. Kate stopped. She examined the surroundings once again and began to cross the empty square of hard-packed earth, which was a