the narrow pathway at some speed--such speed that Erica thought they
were afraid of the hindmost being caught by the same enemy that had
taken their boat. Oddo observed this too, and he quickened their pace
by setting up very loud the mournful cry with which he was accustomed to
call out the plovers on the mountain side on sporting days. No sound
can be more melancholy; and now, as it rang from the rocks, it was so
unsuitable to the place, and so terrible to the already frightened men,
that they ran on as fast as the slipperiness of the rocks would allow,
till they were all out of sight over the ridge.

"Now for it, before the other two come out above us there!" said Oddo;
and in another minute they were again in the fiord, keeping as much in
the shadow as they could, however, till they must strike over to the
islet.

"Thank God that we came!" exclaimed Erica. "We shall never forget what
we owe you, Oddo. You shall see, by the care we take of your
grandfather and Ulla, that we do not forget what you have done this
night. If Nipen will only forgive, for the sake of this--"

"We were just in the nick of time," observed Oddo. "It was better than
if we had been earlier."

"I do not know," said Erica. "Here are their brandy-bottles, and many
things besides. I had rather not have had to bring these away."

"But if we had been earlier, they would not have had their fright. That
is the best part of it. Depend upon it, some that have not said their
prayers for long will say them to-night."

"That will be good. But I do not like carrying home these things that
are not ours. If they are seen at Erlingsen's, they may bring the
pirates down upon us. I would leave them on the islet, but that the
skiff has to be left there too, and that would explain our trick."

Erica would not consent to throw the property overboard. This would be
robbing those who had not actually injured her, whatever their
intentions might have been. She thought that if the goods were left
upon some barren, uninhabited part of the shore, the pirates would
probably be the first to find them; and that, if not, the rumour of such
an extraordinary fact, spread by the simple country-people, would be
sure to reach them. So Oddo carried on shore, at the first stretch of
white beach they came to, the brandy-flasks, the bearskins, the
tobacco-pouch, the muskets and powder-horns, and the tinder-box. He
scattered these about just above high-water ma