began, and I
answered with a mere nod. Her next words almost took my breath away. "I
am glad that you have called, and if you had not done so, I should
have taken the liberty to send for you. You are a man of courage and
experience, Captain Fyffe, and I wish to ask your advice and help."

I answered that I should be glad to render any service in my power, but
I was afraid to show how eager I was to be of use to her, and I thought
that my answer sounded grudging and reluctant.

"Thank you," she said, simply. I could see her great eyes shining from
the dusk in which she sat, and they seemed never to leave my face for
a moment. "I heard you say just now that Mr. Brunow had told you the
story. Did he show you this?"

She drew a scrap of paper from the bosom of her dress, and I took it
from her hand. I told her I had seen it before, and returned it to her.

"Without this," she went on, "I should have had no faith in Mr. Brunow's
statement; but I have compared it with old letters of my father's, and I
have no doubt that it was written by his hand. Now, Captain Fyffe"--she
did her hardest to be business-like and commonplace in manner
through all this interview, and my honor and esteem rose higher every
moment--"now, Captain Fyffe, I want to ask you if in your judgment
there is anything which can be done. I come to you--I tell you
frankly--because you have already done my family one incalculable
service. It is a poor way of offering thanks to burden you with a new
trouble."

"If I have done anything to save you from grief or trouble, Miss
Rossano," I replied, "I can ask for no better reward than to be allowed
to repeat my service."

If she had been anybody but the woman she was she might have accepted my
words, which I knew were spoken with coldness and restraint, as a mere
surface compliment of no value. But I never knew her yet mistaken' in
respect of that one virtue of sincerity. It is especially her own, and
it is the touchstone by which a true heart tests all others.

"Thank you," she answered, simply.

I told her it was four weeks that day since I had first heard of
the matter, and that I had since given it a good deal of practical
consideration. I drew for her a rough map of the country, showing the
roads, marking the places where guards were posted, and so on, and I
gave her what information I had been able to acquire about the rates
of possible travel. From Itzia I calculated we could, if well mounted,
cross