iends are behind us! I hear hoofs and
bells. Run--run!"

[1] The devil take you.

CHAPTER XII

"Who is in the sleigh, Kaya, can you see? Keep low in the shadow and
don't move your head."

"The Countess, Velasco, and Petrokoff and two other men."

"Gendarmes?"

"I think they are gendarmes, Velasco. They look from side to side of
the road as they pass and urge the driver forward."

"Bozhe moi, little one! Keep close to me and hold your breath; in
another moment they will be past."

"Now--Velasco! Now they are out of sight; the last tinkle of the bells
sounds in the distance. Shall we lie here, or follow?"

The gypsey took a long breath and rose to his feet, brushing the snow
from his trousers and coat. The girl still sat crouching behind the
drift, peering ahead into the dark windings of the road and listening.

"Come, little one!" said Velasco, "The fields are covered deep with the
snow; there are no paths and we cannot go back. Give me your hand.
You will freeze if you linger."

The girl put her hand in his, springing up, and they darted into the
dark windings together, making little rushes forward, hand in hand;
then poising on one foot and listening.

"They might turn back you know, Velasco."

"Do you hear the bells?"

"Not yet."

Then they ran on.

The night grew darker and darker; the sky was heavy and black with
clouds, and between them a faint light flitted occasionally like the
ghost of a moon, but feeble and wan. It struggled with the clouds,
piercing them for an instant; and then it was gone and the sky grew
blacker, like a great inky; surface, reflecting shadows on the
snowfields, gigantic and strange. The wind had died down, but the cold
was intense, bitter, and the chill of the ice crept into the bones.

"What is that dark thing ahead on the road, can you see, Velasco?"

"Hist--Kaya, I see! It is big and black. It seems to be a house, or
an inn, for look--there are lights like stars just appearing."

"Not that, Velasco, look closer, in front of the house; does it look
like a sleigh?"

Velasco's grip tightened on the woolen glove of the girl and they
halted together, half hesitating.

"A sleigh, Kaya? Stay here in the shadow--I will steal ahead and look."

"Don't leave me; let me go with you!"

The woolen glove clung to him and they went forward again, a step at a
time, with eyes straining through the snow.

"Is it the sleigh of the Countess, big and bla