d at the other. Then one spoke
diffidently:

"If we follow this stream we shall eventually arrive at the waters
of Merom."

"But remember that meanwhile men and dogs alike will hunt us, and
that only one is armed, although the arm that freed us might
sustain a host," said another.

"We must efface our track and then hide. Let each one walk in the
brawling bed of the torrent; it leaves no scent for the dogs to
follow," said Hubert.

They descended slowly and painfully amidst loose rocks and
boulders, avoiding many a pitfall, many a black depth, until the
dawn was at hand. Just then they heard a deep sound, like a
cathedral bell, booming down the valley.

"What bell is that?"

"No bell, it is the deep bay of the bloodhounds."

"But they can find no trace."

"They are on the track we left, far above, before we entered the
stream. If they cannot scent us in the water, they will have the
sense to follow us downstream, keeping a dog on each bank in ease
we leave it."

"What shall we do?" asked the helpless men.

Above them the rocks rose wild and horrent, apparently
inaccessible, but the keen eye of our Hubert detected one path, a
mere goat path, used perhaps also by shepherds.

"Follow me," he said, and leaving the stream ascended the path, a
veritable mauvais pas. At the height of some two hundred feet it
struck inward through a wild region.

"Here we must make a stand at this summit," said Hubert, "and meet
the dogs. I will give a good account of them."

He descended a little way to a point where the dogs could only
ascend by a very narrow cleft in the rocks, and there he waited for
the first dog. Soon a hideous black hound appeared, and with
flashing eyes and gaping jaws sprang at our hero. He was received
with a sweep of the scimitar, which cleft his diabolical head in
twain, and he rolled down the deep declivity, all mangled and
bleeding, to the foot, missing the path and falling from rock to
rock, so that when he was found by the party who followed they
could not tell by what means he had received his first wound.

And when the other dogs arrived at the spot, which was deluged in
gore, after the wont of their race they would follow the scent no
farther.

Meanwhile our little party of five rescued captives went joyfully
forward with renewed hope, until midday, when they found a cool
spot by the side of the streams leading to the waters of Merom--the
head waters of the Jordan. And there, under a da