ent in his arms.

"He will not frighten you again," he muttered between set lips.

"Thank God," she whispered, now starting up as though with the first
realization of their position.

"Have you any plan of what you will do?"

"Yes. Goritz is still below in the Hall. I have a plan, but I can do
nothing until he goes to bed. Where is his room?"

"In the keep, along the passageway outside."

"I see," thoughtfully; and then, "Do you know where I can find a
rope--several ropes, stout ones?"

"I do not know. There is a storeroom."

"Do you know where it is?"

"Yes, I think so."

"And you can find it--in the dark?"

"I think so."

"Is there any way of telling when Goritz goes to bed?"

"I hear his steps sometimes in the corridor outside."

He went noiselessly over to the door, listened a moment and then
returned.

"No sounds. There isn't much sleep for anyone here tonight. The noise
and the knowledge that Herr Windt is somewhere near----"

"Herr Windt!"

"He has followed us here. I think he found a trace of me at
Bartfeld--the village beyond the mountain," he whispered.

"But we might go down through the castle and the courtyard--if we could
pass the man at the drawbridge. Does it make a noise when it is
lowered?"

"Oh, yes, Hugh--a dreadful noise."

"That's awkward." He crossed to the door into the wainscoting and
listened there, then at the other door into the corridor, and returned
to her.

"For the present, at least, we're safe."

He caught her in his arms and held her silently. Her arms clinging to
him, she raised her head and found his lips.

"Beloved," she whispered, "how did you----"

"I followed you here--on a mere fragment of a clew--but it was enough."

"But he shot you----"

"I was well cared for--in a hospital."

"You were wounded--dangerously?"

"Yes, but I don't die easily. I'm quite well again."

"Are you sure?"

He laughed. "Could I be here, else? Your cliffs are steep----"

"You climbed----?"

"Yes, up a fissure and through the ruins. I saw you--there in the
window--from across the gorge. I heard you call, Marishka----"

"Call----?"

"That you were not afraid to die."

"But I _was_ afraid, Hugh--it was so far--so dark below." She shuddered.

He pressed her closer to him. "Has he--has Goritz----"

"Until tonight, Hugh--he has not been unkind," she said slowly. "I was
sick; he nursed me. But I've feared him--I fear him still----"

He felt her body trembling ag