hey are near me--long before they can see
or scent me."

"You don't see or scent any now, do you?" said Photogen, uneasily,
rising on his elbow.

"No--none at present. I will look," replied Nycteris, and sprang to her
feet.

"Oh! oh! do not leave me--not for a moment," cried Photogen, straining
his eyes to keep her face in sight through the darkness.

"Be quiet, or they will hear you," she returned. "The wind is from the
south, and they can not scent us. I have found out all about that. Ever
since the dear dark came I have been amusing myself with them, getting
every now and then just into the edge of the wind, and letting one have
a sniff of me."

"Oh, horrible!" cried Photogen. "I hope you will not insist on doing so
any more. What was the consequence?"

"Always, the very instant, he turned with flashing eyes, and bounded
toward me--only he could not see me, you must remember. But my eyes
being so much better than his, I could see him perfectly well, and
would run away round him until I scented him, and then I knew he could
not find me anyhow. If the wind were to turn, and run the other way now,
there might be a whole army of them down upon us, leaving no room to
keep out of their way. You had better come."

She took him by the hand. He yielded and rose, and she led him away. But
his steps were feeble, and as the night went on, he seemed more and more
ready to sink.

"Oh dear! I am so tired! and so frightened!" he would say.

"Lean on me," Nycteris would return, putting her arm round him, or
patting his cheek. "Take a few steps more. Every step away from the
castle is clear gain. Lean harder on me. I am quite strong and well
now."

So they went on. The piercing night-eyes of Nycteris descried not a few
pairs of green ones gleaming like holes in the darkness, and many a
round she made to keep far out of their way; but she never said to
Photogen she saw them. Carefully she kept him off the uneven places, and
on the softest and smoothest of the grass, talking to him gently all the
way as they went--of the lovely flowers and the stars--how comfortable
the flowers looked, down in their green beds, and how happy the stars,
up in their blue beds!

When the morning began to come he began to grow better, but was
dreadfully tired with walking instead of sleeping, especially after
being so long ill. Nycteris too, what with supporting him, what with
growing fear of the light which was beginning to ooze out of the e