listen. The wind had long since dropped into
rest, and the clear night air would have carried a sound twice the
distance. Yes, it was a cart or a carriage, and he could even detect
the clatter of the horses on the hard road. Possibly some benighted
wagoner, or a mail cart.

He raised a shout which scared the sleeping rabbits in their holes and
made the hill across the valley wake with echoes. The lights still
moved on. He set Percy down tenderly on the grass with his coat beneath
him. Then, running with all his speed, he halved the distance which
separated him and the road, and shouted again.

This time the clatter of the hoofs stopped abruptly and the lights stood
still.

Once more he shouted, till the night rang with echoes. Then, joyful
sound! there rose from the valley an answering call, and he knew all was
safe.

In a few minutes he was back again where Percy, once more awake, was
sitting up, bewildered, and listening to the echoes which his repeated
shouts still kept waking.

"It's all right, old fellow; there's a carriage."

"They've come to look for us. I can walk, Jeff, really."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, and they'd be so scared if they saw me being carried."

So they started forward, the answering shouts coming nearer and nearer
at every step.

"That's Appleby," said Percy, as a particularly loud whoop fell on their
ears. It was, and with him Mr Rimbolt and Scarfe.

When darkness came, and no signs of the pedestrians, the usual
uneasiness had prevailed at Wildtree, increased considerably by Walker's
and Raby's report as to the mountaineering garb in which the missing
ones had started. The terrible tempest which had attacked the face of
Wild Pike had swept over Wildtree too, and added a hundredfold to the
alarm which, as hour passed hour, their absence caused. Scarfe,
arriving at home about ten o'clock, found the whole family in a state of
panic. Mr Rimbolt had been out on the lower slopes of the mountain,
and reported that a storm raged there before which nothing could stand.
The only hope was that they had been descending the back of the
mountain, and taken refuge somewhere in the valley for the night. The
carriage was ordered out, and Mr Rimbolt and Scarfe started on what
seemed a forlorn hope. For an hour or two they passed and repassed the
valley road, inquiring at every cottage and farm without result.

At last, just as they were resolving to give it up for the night,
Appleby p