ut the danger was not yet past. Several of the smaller masses, which
had been partially arrested in their progress by bushes, still came
thundering down the steep. The quick eye of the hermit observed one of
these flying straight towards his head. Its force had been broken by a
tree on the opposite hill, but it still retained tremendous impetus. He
knew that there was no escape for him. To have moved aside would have
exposed Hilda to almost certain destruction. Once again he murmured the
Saviour's name, as he stretched out both hands straight before his face.
The rock struck full against them, beat them down on his forehead, and
next instant old man and maid were hurled to the ground.

Well was it for Erling that all this occurred so quickly that the danger
was past before he reached the spot. Part of the road he had to
traverse was strewn so thickly with the rocky ruin that his destruction,
had he been a few seconds sooner on the ground, would have been
inevitable. He reached Hilda just in time to assist her to rise. She
was slightly stunned by the shock, but otherwise unhurt.

Not so the hermit. He lay extended where he had fallen; his grey beard
and thin scattered locks dabbled with blood that flowed from a gash in
his forehead. Hilda kneeled at his side, and, raising his head, she
laid it in her lap.

"Now the gods be praised," said Erling, as he knelt beside her, and
endeavoured to stanch the flow of blood from the wound; "I had thought
thy last hour was come, Hilda; but the poor old man, I fear much he will
die."

"Not so; he recovers," said the girl; "fetch me some water from the
spring."

Erling ran to a rill that trickled down the face of the rock at his
side, dipped his leathern bonnet into it, and, quickly returning,
sprinkled a little on the old man's face, and washed the wound.

"It is not deep," he remarked, after having examined the cut. "His
hands are indeed badly bruised, but he will live."

"Get thee to the stede, Erling, and fetch aid," said Hilda quickly; "the
old man is heavy."

The youth smiled. "Heavy he is, no doubt, but he wears no armour;
methinks I can lift him."

So saying Erling raised him in his strong arms and bore him away to
Ulfstede, where, under the tender care of Hilda and her foster-sister
Ada, he speedily revived.

Erling went out meanwhile to assist in the hayfield.

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Note 1. The g