he mourners must
follow the path. They have the body and they will go slowly. It will
take them an hour and a half more to reach the foot of the pass. In
that time Liza and I can cross the fell by Harrop Tarn and Glaramara
and reach the foot, or perhaps the head, of the pass. But this is not
enough. The constables will not follow the road taken by the funeral.
They know that if Ralph is at the top of Stye Head he will be on the
lookout for the procession, and must see them as well as it."

"It's true, it is," said Sim.

"They will, as the blacksmith said, go through Honister and Scarf Gap
and over the Black Sail to Wastdale. They will ride fast, and,
returning to Stye Head, hope to come upon Ralph from behind and
capture him unawares. Father," continued Rotha,--and the girl spoke
with the determination of a strong man,--"if you go over High Seat,
cross the dale, walk past Dale Head, and keep on the far side of the
Great Gable, you will cut off half the journey and be there as soon as
the constables, and you may keep them in sight most of the way. Can
you do this? Have you the strength? You look worn and weak."

"I can--I have--I'll go at once. It's life or death to the best man in
the world, that it is."

"There's not a moment to be lost. Liza, we must not delay an instant
longer."

II. Long before the funeral train had reached the top of the altitude.
Ralph had walked over the more rugged parts of the pass, and had
satisfied himself that there was no danger to be apprehended on this
score. The ghyll was swollen by the thaw. The waters fell heavily over
the great stones, and sent up clouds of spray, which were quickly
dissipated by the wind. Huge hillocks of yellow foam gathered in every
sheltered covelet. The roar of the cataract in the ravine silenced the
voice of the tempest that raged above it.

From the heights of the Great Gable the wind came in all but
overpowering gusts across the top of the pass. Ralph had been thrown
off his feet at one moment by the fierceness of a terrific blast. It
was the same terrible storm that began on the night of his father's
death. Ralph had at first been anxious for the safety of the
procession that was coming, but he had found a more sheltered pathway
under a deep line of furze bushes, and through this he meant to
pioneer the procession when it arrived. There was one gap in the furze
at the mouth of a tributary ghyll. The wind was strong in this gap,
which seemed like a n