climb up I was so frightened! I
thought no one would ever come--except those horrible gipsies. And when
I heard a sound above I was sure they were here. I felt sick and
strange, and I suppose I must have fainted."

"I heard you call, just as I got into the upper room. Then, though I
answered, everything was still. Jove! I had some bad minutes! But you're
sure you're all right now?"

"Sure," I answered, sitting up. "Did I call you 'Jack'? If I did, it was
only because one can't shriek 'Mister,' and anyway you told me to."

"Now I _know_ you're all right, or you wouldn't bother about
conventionalities. I wish I had some brandy for you--"

"I wouldn't take it if you had."

"That sounds like you. That's encouraging! Are you strong enough to let
me get you up into the light and air?"

"Quite!" I replied briskly, letting him help me to my feet. "But how are
we to get up?"

"I'll show you. It will be easy."

"Let's look first for the wicked old creature's rosary. If it isn't
here, it's certain she's a fraud."

"I should think it's certain without looking. I'd like to put the old
serpent in prison."

"I wouldn't care to trouble, now I'm safe. And anyway, how could we
prove she meant her sons to rob me, since they hadn't begun the act, and
so couldn't be caught in it?"

"She didn't know you had a man to look after you. When the guide and I
came this way, searching, we met a gipsy woman with two awful brutes,
and asked if they'd seen a young lady in a gray coat. They were all
three on their way here, as you thought; but when they saw us close to
this house, of course, they dared not carry out their plan, and the old
woman made the best of a bad business. No doubt they're as far off by
this time as they could get. It might be difficult to prove anything,
but I'd like to try."

"_I_ wouldn't," I said. "But let's look for that rosary. Have you any
matches?"

"Plenty." He took out a match-case, and held a wax vesta for me to peer
about in the neighbourhood of the broken stairway.

"Here's something glittering!" I exclaimed, just as I had been about to
give up the search in vain. "She said there was a silver crucifix."

I slipped my fingers into a crack where the rock had been split in
breaking off the lower steps. A small, bright thing was there, almost
buried in debris, but I could not get my fingers in deep enough to
dislodge it. Impatiently I pulled out a hat-pin, and worked until I had
unearthed--not the rosa