as destitute
of all furniture, he spread his plaid on the ground over some straw, and
said--

"Try to sleep here, Miss Home, till morning. I will keep watch in the
outer room."

He shut the door, went back to the two men, looked full at them both,
and leaving them their candle, returned to the closet, where, fastening
the door with his invaluable alpenstock, he sat on the ground by the
entrance of Violet's room. He heard her murmuring words of prayer, and
knew well that she could not sleep in such a situation; but he himself
determined to sit in perfect silence, to keep watch, and to commend
himself and her, whom he now knew that he loved more than himself, in
inward supplication to the merciful protection of their God and Father.

He felt a conviction that they had fallen into bad hands. The man's
anger had first been stirred by the severe wound which Kennedy had in
self-defence inflicted on the dog, and now there was too much reason to
dread that his cupidity had been excited by the sight of the gold chain,
and by Violet's ornaments, which gave promise that he might by this
accident gain a wealthy prize.

After an interval of silence, during which he perceived that they
listened at his door, and were deceived by his measured breathing into a
notion that he was asleep, he noticed that they put out the candle, and
continued to whisper in low thick voices. He was very very weary, his
head nodded many times, and more than once he was afraid that sleep
would overcome him, especially as he dared not stir or change his
position; but the thought of Violet's danger, and the blaze of the
lightning mingled with the yell of the wind kept him watchful, and he
spent the interminable moments in thinking how to act when the attack
came.

At last, about an hour and a half after he had retired, he heard the men
stir, and with a thrill of horror he detected the sound of guns being
loaded. Violet's candle was yet burning, as he perceived by the faint
light under her door, so he wrote on a leaf of his pocket-book in the
dark, "Don't be afraid, Violet, whatever you may hear; trust in God,"
and noiselessly pushed it under the crevice of the door into her room.

The muffled footsteps approached, but he never varied the sound of his
regular breathing. At last came a push at the door, followed by
silence, and then the whisper, "he has fastened it." Still he did not
stir, till he observed that they were both close against the door