."

She set her teeth, her eyes glared, her breath came snorting
through her nostrils.

"I say, Gilly, I'll go back. It ain't safe here. She's possessed
with seven devils."

"I am not possessed, save with mother's love. I will never, never
go back and take my babe to the Punch-Bowl. Never, never, allow
you, Sally, to look at its innocent face again, nor Jonas to touch
it. There is no one cares for it, no one loves it, no one who does
not wish its death, but me, and I will fight, and never--"

Her strength gave way, her hands sank in the sand, and her hair
fell over her face, as she broke into a storm of sobs and tears.

"I say, Jamaica, come out," whispered Mrs. Rocliffe. "We'll talk
over wot's to be done."

Giles Cheel and Sally Rocliffe crept out of the cave backwards.
They did so, facing Mehetabel, with mistrust. Each believed that
she was mad.

When the two were outside, then Jonas's sister said to her companion
"I'll tell you what, Jamaica, I won't have nuthin' more to do with
this. There's somethin' queer; and whether Jonas has been doin'
what he ort not, or whether Matabel be gone rampagin' mad, that's
not for me to say. Let Jonas manage his own affairs, and don't let
us meddle no more."

"I am sure it's 'as nuthin' to me," said Cheel. "But this is a fine
thing. At the christenin' of that there baby he had words to say
about me and my Betsy, as if we was a disgrace to the Punch-Bowl,
becos we didn't always agree. But my Betsy and me never came to
such a pass as this. I'm willin'. Let's go back and have our
suppers, and let her be where she is."

"You need not tell Jonas that we have found her."

"No; not if you wishes."

"Let the matter alone altogether; I reckon she's in a dangerous
mood, and so is Jonas. Something may come of it, and I'd as lief
be out of it altogether."

"That's my doctrine, too," said Giles.

Then he put his head in at the cave door, and said "Good-night,
missus!"

CHAPTER XLII.

AT COLPUS'S.

On the morrow Mehetabel, carrying her babe, revisited the
schoolmistress, at an early hour, before the children assembled.

Betty Chivers received her with joy.

"Matabel," she said, "I've been thinking about you. There's James
Colpus and his daughter are in want of a woman. That girl, Julia
Caesar, as has been with them, got at the barrels of ale, and has
been givin' drink all round to the men, just when they liked. She'd
got a key to the cellar unbeknown to Master Co