ape your
vengeance! Take them, or slay them, but let them not escape! They
have the treasure. We will have them. The vengeance of the gipsy
tribe shall be consummated! They shall not make it void. They shall
give life for life--blood for blood!"

"They shall! they shall! They shall not escape us. We will be
avenged, and the red gold shall be our reward!"

Sir Richard set his teeth as he heard these words, and dug his
spurs into the sides of his horse, causing the noble animal, who
seemed to share his master's knowledge of the deadly peril they
were in, to spring forward with redoubled speed.

"We must save ourselves by flight; they are six to one!" he said in
low tones to his companions, who kept pace for pace at his side.
"It will be a race for life; and if we are beaten, all we can do is
to sell our lives as dearly as may be. It is not robbery alone, it
is vengeance, the old grudge against the Trevlyns. But if we can
but make Cross Way House ere we are outridden, we may save
ourselves yet."

Chapter 24: Kate's Courage.

Lady Humbert had left the Cross Way House for a three days' visit
to a sick relative who had sent an urgent message to her. Mistress
Dowsabel remained in charge of the house and its small establishment,
lessened considerably by the removal of four of the men servants who
had attended their mistress on her journey.

Mistress Dowsabel would gladly have accompanied her sister, for she
was always nervous and ill at ease in her absence, but she was
withheld by two considerations. In the first place, she was
suffering from what was then termed a rheum, which we should call a
bad cold in the head, so that the idea of a wet cold journey of
some hours' duration was exceedingly unwelcome; in the second, it
was not thought seemly by either sister that the young girls, their
guests, should be left in the house without some guardian and
protector; and Mistress Dowsabel therefore decided to put her fears
on one side and remain in charge.

"And beside, what is there to fear?" Lady Humbert had said, in her
decisive and cheery fashion. "We are quiet and peaceable folks, and
have naught to dread either at home or abroad. I shall strive to be
but three nights absent; and our merry Kate will uphold thy
spirits, sister, till my return. Thou wilt be better by the
fireside than journeying in the saddle this tempestuous weather."

This fact was self evident, and Mistress Dowsabel had no desire to
leave the f