rees.

"By this time I had heard May's story. She had felt uneasy at being
alone, but had laughed at herself for being so, until upon her speaking
to one of the servants he had answered in a tone of gross insolence,
which had astonished her. She at once guessed that there was danger, and
the moment that she was alone caught up a large, dark carriage rug,
wrapped it round her so as to conceal her white dress, and stole out
into the veranda. The night was dark, and scarcely had she left the
house than she heard a burst of firing across at the mess-house. She at
once ran in among the bushes and crouched there, as she heard the rush
of men into the room she had just left. She heard them searching for
her, but they were looking for a white dress, and her dark rug saved
her. What she must have suffered in the five minutes between the firing
of the first shots and my arrival, she only knows. May had spoken but
very little since we started. I believe that she was certain that her
father was dead, although I had given an evasive answer when she asked
me; and her terrible sense of loss, added to the horror of that time of
suspense in the garden, had completely stunned her. We waited in the
tope until the afternoon, and then set out again.

"We had gone but a short distance when we saw a body of the rebel
cavalry in pursuit. They had no doubt been scouring the country
generally, and the discovery was accidental. For a short time we kept
away from them, but this could not be for long, as our horse was
carrying double. I made for a sort of ruin I saw at the foot of a hill
half a mile away. I did so with no idea of the possibility of
concealment. My intention was simply to get my back to a rock and to
sell my life as dearly as I could, keeping the last two barrels of the
revolver for ourselves. Certainly no remembrance of my dream influenced
me in any way, and in the wild whirl of excitement I had not given a
second thought to Charley Simmonds' exclamation. As we rode up to the
ruins only a hundred yards ahead of us, May said:

"'Blow out my brains, Edward; don't let me fall alive into their hands.'

"A shock of remembrance shot across me. The chase, her pale face, the
words, the temple--all my dream rushed into my mind.

"'We are saved,' I cried, to her amazement, as we rode into the
courtyard, in whose center a great figure was sitting.

"I leapt from the horse, snatched the mussuk of water from the saddle,
and then hurried M