l," he repeated. "You are brave; let your own eyes look
for it." He had withdrawn his arm.

"Yet I must search, and you shall search with me. You were his
friend, I think?"

"Indeed, I even believed so. . . . I was thinking of _you_. . . .
It is almost certain death. Do you say that he is worth it?"

"Do you fear death?" she asked.

"Moderately," he answered. "Yet if you command me, I come; if you
go, I go with you."

"Come."

Chapter IV.

THE SEARCH.

They set out hand in hand. The small dog ran with them.

Even the beginning of the descent was far from easy, for the high
walls that had protected the villa-gardens of Buenos Ayres lay in
heaps, cumbering the roadway, and in places obliterating it.

About a hundred and fifty yards down the road, by what had been the
walled entrance to the Hakes' garden, they sighted two forlorn small
figures--the six and five year old Hake children, Sophie and Miriam,
who recognised Ruth and, running, clung to her skirts.

"Mamma! Where is mamma?"

"Dears, where did you leave her last?"

"She pushed us out through the gateway, here, and told us to stand
in the middle of the road while she ran back to call daddy. She said
no stones could fall on us here. But she has been gone ever so long,
and we can't hear her calling at all."

While Ruth gathered them to her and attempted to console them,
Mr. Langton stepped within the ruined gateway. In a minute or so he
came back, and his face was grave.

She noted it. "What can we do with them?" she asked, and added with
a haggard little smile, "I had actually begun to tell them to run up
to our house and wait, forgetting--"

"They had best wait here, as their mother advised."

"It is terrible!"

He lifted his shoulders slightly. "If once we begin--"

"No, you are right," she said, with a shuddering glance down the
road; and bade the little ones rest still as their mother had
commanded. She was but going down to the city (she said) to see if
the danger was as terrible down there. The two little ones cried and
clung to her; but she put them aside firmly, promising to look for
their mamma when she returned. Langton did not dare to glance at her
face.

The dark cloud dust met them, a gunshot below, rolling up the
hillside from the city. They passed within the fringe of it, and at
once the noonday sun was darkened for them. In the unnatural light
they picked their way with difficulty.

"She was lyin