ith only one leg broken, and our dog has just
had puppies--"

"Oh dear! they won't let me have a dog. There is not a dog in the
valley. They say that they are such noisy things--"

"Only put your hands in mine--what little things they are, Lorna!--and
I will bring you the loveliest dog; I will show you just how long he is."

"Hush!" A shout came down the valley, and all my heart was trembling,
like water after sunset, and Lorna's face was altered from pleasant play
to terror. She shrunk to me, and looked up at me, with such a power of
weakness, that I at once made up my mind to save her or die with her. A
tingle went through all my bones, and I only longed for my carbine. The
little girl took courage from me, and put her cheek quite close to mine.

"Come with me down the water-fall. I can carry you easily, and mother
will take care of you."

"No, no," she cried, as I took her up; "I will tell you what to do.
They are only looking for me. You see that hole, that hole there?"

"Yes, I see it; but they will see me crossing the grass to get there."

"Look, look!" She could hardly speak. "There is a way out from the top
of it; they would kill me if I told it. Oh, here they come; I can see
them." Then she began to sob aloud, being so young and unready. But I
drew her behind the withy-bushes, and close down to the water, where it
was quiet and shelving deep, ere it came to the lip of the chasm. Here
they could not see either of us from the upper valley.

Crouching in that hollow nest, as children get together in ever so
little compass, I saw a dozen fierce men come down on the other side of
the water, not bearing any fire-arms, but looking lax and jovial, as if
they were come from riding and a dinner taken hungrily. "Queen, queen!"
they were shouting, here and there, and now and then; "where the pest is
our little queen gone?"

"They always call me 'queen,' and I am to be queen by-and-by," Lorna
whispered to me, with her soft cheek on my rough one, and her little
heart beating against me; "oh, they are crossing by the timber there,
and then they are sure to see us."

"Stop," said I; "now I see what to do. I must get into the water, and
you must go to sleep."

"To be sure, yes; away in the meadow there. But how bitter cold it will
be for you!"

She saw in a moment the way to do it sooner than I could tell her; and
there was no time to lose.

"Now, mind you, never come again," she whispered over her shoulder, as