slipping through the opening of his cave, his pursuer hurled his
hatchet with such deadly aim that it cleft the fugitive's skull, and he
sank dead on the spot.

"And that was how the last lord of the cave came to his end," concluded
Aaron.

"But what about Marczi and Rosalie?" asked Blanka.

The narrator proceeded to gratify her curiosity by making the young man
fall into the hands of the Mongols, after which he was captured by a
troop of Cossacks; and then, when Aaron was putting him through a
similar experience with the dog-faced Tartars, his listener succumbed at
last to the drowsiness against which she had been struggling, and the
story was abruptly discontinued.

"I never heard that tale before, brother," said Manasseh, after assuring
himself that Blanka was really asleep.

"Nor I, either," was Aaron's candid reply; "but in a tight pinch a man
turns romancer sometimes. I don't know, though, what fables we can
invent to keep the young lady here over to-morrow. You think up
something, brother; don't let me go to perdition all alone for the lot
of yarns I've been reeling off to your sweetheart."

"Very well," assented the other; "I'll set my wits to work. Now you lie
down and rest a bit, while I stay up and tend the fire. At midnight I
will wake you and lie down myself while you watch."

Aaron lay down with a bundle of twigs under his head for a pillow, and,
muttering a snatch of a prayer, was fast asleep in a twinkling. Manasseh
was now left undisturbed to devise something new and surprising against
his brother's awakening. Tearing a leaf from his sketch-book, he wrote
as follows:

"DEAR BROTHER AARON:--I cannot close my eyes in sleep
while death threatens our brothers Simon and David. Nor can I
endure the thought of my birthplace being turned into a bloody
battle-field, and of the horrors of war invading the peaceful
valley whither I am bringing my bride, and which has ever looked
upon bloodshed with disapproval. It was my fond hope to give my
wife a glimpse of mankind in something like its original sinless
state, and to let her learn to know and worship the God of our
fathers as a God of love and gentleness. I am seeking a way by
which this cherished hope of mine may yet be realised. While the
Lord watches over your slumbers, I go in quest of the insurgent
leader. That which force and threats cannot effect may yet be
accomplished by peacefu