the jaunt."

There was a halt, and Blanka awoke of her own accord. Manasseh turned to
her, chatted with her a moment on the brightness of the stars and the
clearness of the sky, then kissed her hand and bade her draw it back
again under her furs, else it would get frost-bitten. Thereupon Aaron
reined his horses toward the mountain gorge he had pointed out, and they
began their dangerous journey over a rough wood-road that led through
the ravine. At one point it ran along the brink of a precipice, and as
they paused to breathe their horses the rumble of wagons on the highway
from Torda fell on their ears, sounding like distant thunder in the
still night. Then, to the north and south, red lights began to glimmer
on the mountain peaks.

"How beautiful!" exclaimed Blanka, as she gazed at them. Little did she
suspect that they were beacon-fires calling to deeds of blood and
rapine.

A turn in the road at length conducted the travellers through a gap in
the mountain range, and they had a view of the moonlit landscape before
them. A noisy brook went tumbling and foaming down the ravine, and over
it led a wooden bridge, at the farther end of which could be seen a rude
one-story house surrounded by a palisade. Five smaller houses of
similar architecture were grouped about it. The barking of dogs greeted
the travellers while they were still some distance off, and the crowing
of cocks soon followed.

"Do you hear Ciprianu's roosters?" Aaron asked his brother.

"So you are acquainted with Ciprianu and his poultry?" returned
Manasseh.

"Yes, I know them well. Ciprianu is a Wallach, but a nobleman of Hungary
for all that, and his poultry unique of its sort. The cocks are white,
but in head and neck they bear a strong resemblance to turkeys, and they
gobble like turkeys, too. They are a special breed and Ciprianu wouldn't
part with one of them for a fortune. He guards them jealously from
thieves, and that explains why he has so many dogs. As soon as he hears
our carriage-wheels he'll come out on his veranda and fire off his
gun--not at us, but into the air, to let us know he's awake and ready to
meet friend or foe."

The barking increased, the dogs sticking their noses out from between
the stakes of the palisade and joining in a full chorus. Presently a
shot was heard from the front porch of the house.

"Oh, they are firing at us!" cried Blanka, startled.

"Don't be afraid, sister-in-law," Aaron reassured her; "that shot w