again until he was near the entrance. So still was it that he heard
the scratching of the match against the sole of her sandal. But no
flare of light came out to him.

"Did you light it?" he asked.

"Yes. Couldn't you see it?"

"Not a glimmer. Wait a minute and I'll bring in some stuff for a fire."

The match burned down until it warmed her fingers and went out. In the
dark she waited breathlessly. A sigh of relief escaped her when she
heard him coming.

He went down on his knees and made a very small heap of the dry leaves
and twigs he had scraped up. When he set fire to it and straightened
up they watched the flames eagerly. There was scarcely more light than
a candle casts but even that faint illumination brought something of
cheeriness with it. They looked about them curiously. They could see
dimly the passageway along which they had come; they could make out its
narrowing continuation on into the mass of the mountain. They looked
up and saw an ever dwindling space merging with darkness and finally
lost in utter obscurity. Underfoot was debris, rocky soil worn away
from the cliffs throughout the ages, here and there fallen slivers and
scale of rock. Shadows moved somberly, misshapen and grotesque, like
brooding spirits of evil stirring in nightmare.

Kendric threw on a little more fuel and, to make doubly sure, went
outside again, standing in the open beyond the fringe of bushes.

"Never a flicker gets through," he announced when he returned. "A man
would have to come close enough to hear the wood crackle or smell the
smoke to ever guess we had a fire going. And even the smoke is taken
care of." They tilted back their heads to see how it crept lazing up
and up until it was dissipated among the lofty shadows. "If we can
manage water and food," he went on, "I think we would be safe here a
year. The lazy devils taking Zoraida's pay can't make it up this way
on horseback, and they're not going to climb on foot up every steep bit
of mountainside hereabouts, looking for us."

"A year?" gasped Betty.

"I hope not." He became conscious of a sudden sense of relief after
all that the night had offered and his old joyous laughter shone in his
eyes. "But there may be wisdom in sticking close for a few days.
Until they decide we've gone clear."

It was the time, inevitable though it may be long delayed, of relaxing
nerves and muscles. Betty sat down limply, her hands loose in her tap,
her eyes dr