with none to help either of us, and I'll beat him to a pulp, and hang
what's left of him upon the nearest tree to be a warning to all such
puppies."

"I note the challenge," said Sir Edmund, "and should the chance come my
way will keep the lists for you with pleasure, since whatever this Hugh
may be I doubt that from his blood he'll prove no coward. But, young
sir, you must catch your puppy ere you hang him, and if he is in this
marsh he must have gone to ground."

"I think so, too, Sir Edmund; but, if so, we'll soon start the badger.
Look yonder." And he pointed to smoke rising at several spots half a
mile or more away.

"What have you done, son?" asked Sir John anxiously.

"Fired the reeds," he said with a savage laugh, "and set men to watch
that the game does not break back. Oh, have no fear, father! Red Eve
will take no harm. The girl ever loved fire. Moreover, if she is there
she will run to the water before it, and be caught."

"Fool," thundered Sir John, "do you know your sister so little? As like
as not she'll stay and burn, and then I'll lose my girl, who, when all
is said, is worth ten of you! Well, what is done cannot be undone, but
if death comes of this mad trick it is on your head, not mine! To the
bank, and watch with me, Sir Edmund, for we can do no more."

Ten minutes later, and the fugitives in the mound, peeping out from
their hole, saw clouds of smoke floating above them.

"You should have let me shoot, Master Hugh," said Grey Dick, in his
hard, dry whisper. "I'd have had these three, at least, and they'd have
been good company on the road to hell, which now we must walk alone."

"Nay," answered Hugh sternly, "I'll murder none, though they strive
to murder us, and these least of all," and he glanced at Eve, who sat
staring out of the mouth of the hole, her chin resting on her hand. "You
had best give in, sweetheart," he said hoarsely. "Fire is worse than
foes, and it draws near."

"I fear it less," she answered. "Moreover, marriage is worse than
either--sometimes."

Hugh took counsel with Grey Dick.

"This place will burn like tinder," he said, pointing to the dry reeds
which grew thickly all about them, and to the masses of brushwood and
other rubbish that had drifted against the side of the little mound
in times of flood. "If the fire reaches us we must perish of flame, or
smoke, or both."

"Ay," answered Dick, "like old witch Sarah when they burned her in
her house. She screec