myself that Ringan would never have countenanced this idle grief.
I girt on his sword, and hung the gold charm round my neck. Then I took
my bearings as well as I could, re-loaded my pistols, and marched into
the woods, keeping to the course of the little river.

As I went I remember that always a little ahead I seemed to hear the
merry lilt of Ringan's whistling.

CHAPTER XXIV.

I SUFFER THE HEATHEN'S RAGE

As I stumbled through the moonlit forest I heard Ringan's tunes ever
crooning among the trees. First it was the old mad march of "Bundle and
go," which the pipers play when the clans are rising. Then it changed
to the lilt of "Colin's Cattle," which is an air that the fairies made,
and sung in the ear of a shepherd who fell asleep in one of their holy
places. And then it lost all mortal form, and became a thing as faint
as the wind in the tree-tops or the humming of bees in clover. My weary
legs stepped out to this wizard music, and the spell of it lulled my
fevered thoughts into the dull patience of the desperate.

At an open space where I could see the sky I tried to take further
bearings. I must move south-east by east, and in time I must come to
Lawrence. I do not think I had any hope of getting there, for I knew
that long ere this the man who escaped must have returned with others,
and that now they would be hot on my trail. What could one lad do in a
wide woodland against the cunningest trackers on earth? But Ringan had
praised my courage, and I could not fail him. I should go on till I
died, and I did not think that would be very long. My pistols,
re-loaded, pressed against my side, and Ringan's sword swung by my
thigh. I was determined to make a good ending, since that was all now
left to me. In that hour I had forgotten about everything--about the
peril of Virginia, even about Elspeth and the others in the fort on the
hill-top. There comes a time to every one when the world narrows for him
to a strait alley, with Death at the end of it, and all his thoughts are
fixed on that waiting enemy of mankind.

My senses were blunted, and I took no note of the noises of the forest.
As I passed down a ravine a stone dropped behind me, but I did not
pause to wonder why. A twig crackled on my left, but it did not
disquiet me, and there was a rustling in the thicket which was not the
breeze. I marked nothing, as I plodded on with vacant mind and eye. So
when I tripped on a vine and fell, I was scarcely surpr