alley which they were crossing we saw
signs of persons coming in haste, who must be of the search party
coming from the north. Though the trees hid them, we could not
mistake the signs. I was myself forester enough to have no doubt.
Again, it was evident that the young Voivodin could travel no longer
at the dreadful pace at which they had been going. Those blood-marks
told their own tale! They meant to make a last stand here in case
they should be discovered.

Then it was that he, who amongst us all had been most fierce and most
bent on rapid pursuit, became the most the calm. Raising his hand
for silence--though, God knows, we were and had been silent enough
during that long rush through the forest--he said, in a low, keen
whisper which cut the silence like a knife:

"My friends, the time is come for action. God be thanked, who has
now brought us face to face with our foes! But we must be careful
here--not on our own account, for we wish nothing more than to rush
on and conquer or die--but for the sake of her whom you love, and
whom I, too, love. She is in danger from anything which may give
warning to those fiends. If they know or even suspect for an instant
that we are near, they will murder her . . . "

Here his voice broke for an instant with the extremity of his passion
or the depth of his feeling--I hardly know which; I think both acted
on him.

"We know from those blood-marks what they can do--even to her." His
teeth ground together again, but he went on without stopping further:

"Let us arrange the battle. Though we are but little distance from
them as the crow flies, the way is far to travel. There is, I can
see, but one path down to the valley from this side. That they have
gone by, and that they will sure to guard--to watch, at any rate.
Let us divide, as to surround them. The cliff towards which they
make runs far to the left without a break. That to the right we
cannot see from this spot; but from the nature of the ground it is
not unlikely that it turns round in this direction, making the hither
end of the valley like a vast pocket or amphitheatre. As they have
studied the ground in other places, they may have done so in this,
and have come hither as to a known refuge. Let one man, a marksman,
stay here."

As he spoke a man stepped to t