said Aladdin.

She looked at him shrewdly, and saw that the light of reason had gone
out of his eyes. She wetted her handkerchief with the cold, filthy water
spread over the cellar floor and laid it on his forehead. Aladdin spoke
ramblingly or kept silence. Every now and then the girl freshened the
handkerchief, and presently Aladdin fell into a troubled sleep.

When he awoke his mind was quite clear. The lantern still burned, but
faintly, for the air in the cellar was becoming heavy. Beside him on
the straw the girl lay sleeping. And overhead footsteps sounded on the
stable floor. He remembered what the girl had said about the people who
would kill him if they found him, and blew out the lantern. Then, his
hand over her mouth, he waked the girl.

"Don't make a noise," he said. "Listen."

The girl sat up on the straw.

"I'll call," she whispered presently, "and pretend you're not here."

"But the horse?"

"I'll lie about him."

She raised her voice.

"Who's there?" she called.

"It's I--Calvert. Where are you?"

"Listen," she answered; "I've fallen through the floor into the cellar.
Don't you see where it's broken?"

The footsteps approached.

"You're not hurt, are you?"

"No; but don't come too close, don't try to look down; the floor's
frightfully rickety. Isn't there a ladder there somewhere?"

A man laughed.

"Wait," he said. They heard his footsteps and laughter receding.
Presently the bottom of a ladder appeared through the hole in the floor.

"Look out for your head," said the man.

The girl rose and guided the ladder clear of Aladdin's head.

"What have you done with the Yankee's horse?" she called.

"He's here."

"Where's the Yankee, do you suppose?"

"We think he must have run off into the woods."

"That's what I thought."

The girl began to mount the ladder.

"I'm coming up," she said.

She disappeared, and the ladder was withdrawn.

She came back after a long time, and there were men with her.

"It's all right, Yankee," she called down the hole. "They're your own
men, and I'm the prisoner now."

The ladder reappeared, and two friendly men in blue came down into the
cellar.

"Good God!" they said. "It's Aladdin O'Brien!"

Hannibal St. John and Beau Larch lifted Aladdin tenderly and took him
out of his prison.

Outside, tents were being pitched in the dark, and there was a sound of
axes. Fires glowed here and there through the woods and over the fields,
and troops k