she crept away with a childish twist, hiding her white front from me;
"only I shall come sometimes--oh, here they are, Madonna!"

Daring scarce to peep, I crept into the water, and lay down bodily in
it, with my head between two blocks of stone, and some flood drift
combing over me. I knew that for her sake I was bound to be brave and
hide myself. She was lying beneath a rock, thirty or forty yards from
me, feigning to be fast asleep, with her dress spread beautifully, and
her hair drawn over her.

Presently one of the great, rough men came round a corner upon her; and
there he stopped and gazed a while at her fairness and her innocence.
Then he caught her up in his arms, and kissed her so that I heard him;
and if I had only brought my gun, I would have tried to shoot him.

"Here our queen is! Here's the queen; here's the captain's daughter!"
he shouted to his comrades; "fast asleep, and hearty! Now I have first
claim to her; and no one else shall touch the child. Back to the bottle,
all of you!"

He set her dainty little form upon his great, square shoulder, and her
narrow feet in one broad hand; and so in triumph marched away.

II.

[After this, John and Lorna met often in a secret place, where
there was little chance of discovery. It was decided by the
family that Lorna should be the wife of Carver Doone, the leader
of the band, but as she was unwilling, and Grandfather Doone,
the retiring leader, would not permit them to compel her, years
went by without Carver accomplishing his purpose. Finally Lorna
came no more to the trysting place, so that John suspected she
had been put in a dungeon. He resolved to gain an entrance to
the Doone village, and, after a desperate night adventure,
succeeded.]

My heart was in my mouth, as they say, when I stood in the shade of
Lorna's window, and whispered her name gently. But, though the window
was not very close, I might have whispered long enough before she would
have answered me, frightened as she was, no doubt, by many a rude
overture. And I durst not speak aloud, because I saw another watchman
posted on the western cliff, and commanding all the valley. And now
this man espied me against the wall of the house, and advanced against
the brink and challenged me.

"Who are you, there? Answer! One, two, three; and I fire at thee."

The nozzle of his gun was pointed full upon me, as I could see, with
the moonlight striking on the