good wife. We buried what
seemed to be her remains, yesterday morning. It was that, that kept me
from starting the moment the man came in with the news that Oswald had
got the girls out of the hands of the Bairds."

"And how is Allan?"

"I trust he will get right, now. He has come partly to his senses,
though he is still dazed. We had him carried, in a litter, to the
monastery where I obtained the monk's robe for your man; for I feared
to leave him in the village, lest the Bairds, furious at the escape of
the girls, might return to finish their work."

He was about to speak to Oswald, when the door opened, and the girls
ran in, and it was some time before Adam Armstrong again turned to him.

"Now, lad," he said, "do not think, because I am a long time coming to
the point, that I think lightly of the service you have rendered me.
Ah, lad! I could scarce believe my ears, when Fergus told me that you
and your henchman had got the lasses out of the Bairds' hands, and had
gone off on horseback with them. I had to put the question, again and
again, as to whether he was sure that it was really the girls you had
with you. It seemed to me to be altogether impossible; but I had to
believe him, at last, though how it came about he could not tell me."

"We had no time for talking," Oswald said. "Every moment was of
importance. But the matter was simple enough, and worth but a few
words' telling."

And he then related the manner in which he and Roger had obtained
entrance to the hold, and had succeeded in getting the girls away.

"It sounds simple enough, in the telling," Armstrong said; "but it
needed stout hearts, and good nerves, to enter the Bairds' den on such
an errand. You carried your lives in your hands, and well must you have
borne out your story, to have passed without suspicion. It was well
thought of, indeed, and well carried out, and would have done credit to
the boldest and craftiest leader on the border.

"What say you, John?"

"I am proud of him, Adam. As for myself, I should never have thought of
such a plan. If I had had the matter in hand, I might have taken twenty
stout fellows, and tried to scale the walls unseen, and to fall upon
them with spear and sword, and in the confusion carry the girls off;
but it would have been a desperate plan, with but small hope of
success."

"Small indeed, John, small indeed," Armstrong said, shaking his head.
"With prisoners in the hold, the Bairds were not likely to