was only too gladly
accepted. Accordingly, as soon as day was sufficiently advanced, we bade
the hut good-bye and set out on the last stage of our momentous journey.
A strong breeze was still blowing across the snow, and, as we were soon
to discover, it cut like a knife. When we had decided upon the route,
the little man went on ahead, in order, so he explained, to spy out the
country, and to make sure that we did not fall into a trap. As on the
previous afternoon, the big innkeeper carried me, and one of the
smugglers did the same at intervals for Max, while the other helped my
mother and her woman whenever the path became more difficult than usual.
It was perhaps as well that we had their assistance, for, as we soon
found, the road we were following, if road it can be called, was far
from being an easy one. For the first few miles it lay along the
mountain side, then by a long and gradual descent to the valley below.
For the women of our party it proved even more trying than that of the
previous day, but, with the assistance of the guides, it was in the end
safely accomplished, and we stood upon the plain, only a matter of ten
or a dozen miles from safety. Even that short distance, however,
contained a sufficiency of dangers. On one occasion we were within an
ace of stumbling upon a camp of gipsies, on another we discovered that
we were being followed by three men, whose intentions could scarcely
have been conducive to the end we had in view. It was within half a mile
of the Border, however, and just when we were beginning to deem
ourselves safe, that we received the greatest shock. We had left the
fields behind us and had entered a small wood, when the little man, who,
as usual, was leading the way, suddenly stopped, and held up his hand to
the others not to advance. Then he crept forward to discover, if
possible, of what the danger consisted. He was absent for upwards of
five minutes, and when he returned it was with a solemn face.

"Soldiers!" he whispered; "they are resting on the far side of the
wood."

"There are at least a dozen of them," he replied in answer to a question
of my father's. "They are eating a meal. They have not unsaddled, so
that they will go on when they have rested."

Comforting as this last assurance was, we dared not place too much
reliance on it. If the men were really searching for us, as we felt sure
they were, it was more than likely that they would make an examination
of the wood bef