d. He crouched again. "Now, get off; the rest is only
some steep climbing in the bushes."

"Mr. March, I ain't eveh goin' to git down to God's blessed level groun'
ag'in!"

"Think not? You'll be there in five seconds if you take hold of any dead
wood. Come on."

They climbed again, hugged the cliff while they took breath, climbed
once more, forebore to look down, and soon, crowding into what had
seemed but a shallow cleft, were stooping under the low roof of a small
cavern. Its close rocky bounds and tumbled floor sparkled here and there
in the light of the matches John struck. From their pockets the pair
laid out a scant store of food.

"Now I must go," said John. "I'll come again to-morrow night. You're
safe here. You may find a snake or two, but you don't mind that, do
you?"

"Me? Law, no! not real ones. Di'mon'-back rattlesnake hisself cayn't no
mo' scare me 'n if I was a hawg. Good-by, seh."

How the heavy-eyed youth the next day finished his examinations he
scarcely knew himself, but he hoped he had somehow passed. He could not
slip away from Rosemont until after bedtime, and the night was half gone
when he reached the cliff under Lover's Leap. A light rain increased the
risk of the climb, but he reached the cave in safety only to find it
deserted. On his way down he discovered ample signs that the promiscuous
lover, an hour or two before, had slowly, safely, and in the
"skilfullest way" reached the arms of his most dangerous but dearest
love; "cooned it every step," John said, talking to his horse as they
trudged back toward Rosemont. "What the rattle-snakes couldn't do," he
added, "the bottle-snake has done."

Mr. Leggett's perils might not be over, but out of the youth's hands
meant off his indulgent conscience, and John returned to his slighted
books, quickened in all his wilful young blood by the knowledge that a
single night of adventurous magnanimity had made him henceforth master
of himself, his own purposes, and his own mistakes.

XXIII.

A SUMMONS FOR THE JUDGE

Baccalaureate Sunday. It was hot, even for Suez. The river seemed to
shine with heat. Yet every convenient horse-rack was crowded with
horses, more than half of them under side-saddles, and in the square
neighing steeds, tied to swinging limbs because too emotionally noble to
share their privileges with anything they could kick, pawed, wheeled,
and gazed after their vanished riders as if to say, "'Pon my word, if he
hasn't g