t seemed so. From
the mountains beyond, the rattle of small-arm fire had risen to a steady
roar, but the detonations of heavy ordnance were less frequent.

"The Austrians--may be winning," he said calmly.

She pressed his hand. "I am sorry," she said bravely.

But there was a world of meaning for Renwick in the way she whispered
it.

"Your people shall be my people," she murmured again. "And your God, my
God."

He could only return her pressure in silence.

He would have been little happy if he could have said how much.

Together they peered through the slip of the silken hanging to the
rampart below. Flashes of reflections from the end of the Pass played
like sheet lightning, and in the fitful illuminations they could see the
figure of the old man, Strohmeyer, reclining in the shadow by the
postern gate. The drawbridge was still raised, and beyond it they could
see in the flashes, the length of the causeway stretching out into the
darkness of the mountainside beyond. Strohmeyer did not move. It almost
seemed as though he were asleep.

"What makes you think that Herr Windt is here?" asked Marishka suddenly.

"I saw him with Spivak yonder," and he pointed to the north beyond the
gorge.

Marishka was silent, her eyes eagerly searching the shadows. Her hand
was trembling a little with the excitement of their situation, but her
voice was firm as she whispered:

"Perhaps tonight my eyes are uncertain, Hugh. But do you not see
something moving in the shadow of the wall?"

"Where?"

"Of the causeway--there, beyond the chain of the drawbridge----"

He peered eagerly in the direction she indicated.

"A shadow----?" he questioned. "I can't--no--yes--it moves--there!"

"Yes--another and still another. And they are carrying something."

Renwick watched again for a tense moment.

"Windt--and his men," he said with conviction. "They are going to try to
span the abyss."

"Strohmeyer----"

Here at least was a community of interest with Goritz. "They will win
their way across, unless he wakes," said Renwick tensely.

"What is it that they are carrying?"

"Timbers--see! There are at least four men to each. They are putting
them in the shadow of the wall. Will the man never wake up?"

"What can we do?" she whispered desperately. "I could call out to him."

"No----" he said, "I don't want to arouse Goritz yet. Ah! They have
slunk away again to get more timbers, I think."

"And if they should succeed----?"