aid at length, earnestly, "Jesus will be in heaven. It was
His Spirit who taught you to love mamma--as you do, so you are sure to
meet her there with Him."

"Nobody _taught_ me to love mamma," returned the child quietly; "I
couldn't help it."

"True, little one, but it was God who made you to--`couldn't help it.'"

Letta was puzzled by this reply. She raised her bright eyes inquiringly
into Robin's honest face, and said, "But you've promised to take me to
her, you know."

"Yes, dear little one, but you must not misunderstand me," replied the
youth somewhat sadly. "I promise that, God helping me, I will do the
best I can to find out where your mother is; but you must remember that
I have very little to go on. I don't even know your mother's name, or
the place where you were taken from. By the way, an idea has just
occurred to me. Have you any clothes at the cave?"

"Of course I have," answered Letta, with a merry laugh.

"Yes; but I mean the clothes that you had on when you first came here."

"I don't know; Meerta knows. Why?"

"Because your name may be marked on them. Come, let us go back at once
and see. Besides, we are wasting time, for you know I was sent out to
shoot some ducks for dinner."

Rising as he spoke, Robin shouldered the shotgun which had been supplied
from the robbers' armoury, and, descending with his little companion
towards the lake, soon began to stalk the birds as carefully as if he
had been trained to the work by a Red Indian. Stooping low, he glided
swiftly through the bushes, until he came within a hundred yards of the
margin of the lakelet, where a group of some thirty or forty fat ducks
were feeding. Letta had fallen behind, and sat down to watch.

The distance being too great for a shot, and the bushes beyond the spot
which he had reached being too thin to conceal him, Robin lay flat down,
and began to advance through the long grass after the fashion of a
snake, pushing his gun before him. It was a slow and tedious process,
but Robin's spirit was patient and persevering. He screwed himself, as
it were, to within sixty yards of the flock, and then fired both barrels
almost simultaneously. Seven dead birds remained behind when the
affrighted flock took wing.

"It is not very scientific shooting," said Robin, apologetically, to his
fair companion, as she assisted him to tie their legs together; "but our
object just now is food, not sport."

On the way back to the caver