rought me to my senses by withdrawing her hands. "We've no time to
lose." And I looked wildly from wall to wall, only to find them as
barren and inaccessible on this side as on the other.

"We have more time than you think," were Eva's first words. "We can do
nothing for half-an-hour."

"Why not?"

"I'll tell you in a minute. How did you manage to get over?"

"Brought boulders from the beck, and piled 'em up till I could reach the
top."

I thought her eyes glistened.

"What patience!" she cried softly. "We must find a simpler way of
getting out--and I think I have. They've all gone, you know, but Jose."

"All three?"

"The captain has been gone all day."

Then the other two must have been my horse-men, very probably in some
disguise; and my head swam with the thought of the risk that I had run
at the very moment when I thought myself safest. Well, I would have
finished them both! But I did not say so to Eva. I did not mention
the incident, I was so fearful of destroying her confidence in me.
Apologizing, therefore, for my interruption, without explaining it, I
begged her to let me hear her plan.

It was simple enough. There was no fear of the others returning before
midnight; the chances were that they would be very much later; and
now it was barely eleven, and Eva had promised not to stay out above
half-an-hour. When it was up Jose would come and call her.

"It is horrid to have to be so cunning!" cried little Eva, with an angry
shudder; "but it's no use thinking of that," she was quick enough to
add, "when you have such dreadful men to deal with, such fiends! And I
have had all day to prepare, and have suffered till I am so desperate I
would rather die to-night than spend another in that house. No; let me
finish! Jose will come round here to look for me. But you and I will
be hiding on the other side of these rhododendrons. And when we hear him
here we'll make a dash for it across the long grass. Once let us get the
door shut and locked in his face, and he'll be in a trap. It will take
him some time to break in; time enough to give us a start; what's more,
when he finds us gone, he'll do what they all used to do in any doubt."

"What's that?"

"Say nothing till it's found out; then lie for their lives; and it was
their lives, poor creatures on the Zambesi!" She was silent a moment,
her determined little face hard--set upon some unforgotten horror.
"Once we get away, I shall be surprised if it's found o