, and to lock fast the outer gate when we have gone. This
done, I have no fear of thy safety. Now," and he kissed his daughter
heartily, "now lads, 'tis time we were on the march! Sigurd, my boy,
lead on!"

"Wait!" cried Sigurd, springing to Thelma's side. "I must say good-bye!"
And he caught the girl's hand and kissed it,--then plucking a rose, he
left it between her fingers. "That will remind you of Sigurd, mistress!
Think of him once to-day!--once again when the midnight glory shines.
Good-bye, mistress! that is what the dead say, . . . Good-bye!"

And with a passionate gesture of farewell, he ran and placed himself at
the head of the little group that waited for him, saying exultingly--

"Now follow me! Sigurd knows the way! Sigurd is the friend of all the
wild waterfall! Up the hills,--across the leaping stream,--through the
sparkling foam!" And he began chanting to himself a sort of wild
mountain song.

Macfarlane looked at him dubiously. "Are ye sure?" he said to Gueldmar.
"Are ye sure that wee chap kens whaur he's gaun? He'll no lead us into a
ditch an' leave us there, mistakin' it for the Fall?"

Gueldmar laughed heartily. "Never fear! Sigurd's the best guide you can
have, in spite of his fancies. He knows all the safest and surest paths;
and Njedegorze is no easy place to reach, I can tell you!"

"_Pardon!_ How is it called?" asked Duprez eagerly.

"Njedegorze."

The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders. "I give it up!" he said smilingly.
"Mademoiselle Gueldmar, if anything happens to me at this cascade with
the name unpronounceable, you will again be my doctor, will you not?"

Thelma laughed as she shook hands with him. "Nothing will happen," she
rejoined; "unless, indeed, you catch cold by sleeping in a hut all
night. Father, you must see that they do not catch cold!"

The _bonde_ nodded, and motioned the party forward, Sigurd leading the
way,--Errington, however, lingered behind on pretense of having
forgotten something, and, drawing his betrothed in his arms, kissed her
fondly.

"Take care of yourself, darling!" he murmured,--and then hurrying away
he rejoined his friends, who had discreetly refrained from looking back,
and therefore had not seen the lovers embrace.

Sigurd, however, had seen it, and the sight apparently gave fresh
impetus to his movements, for he sprang up the adjacent hill with so
much velocity that those who followed had some difficulty to keep up
with him,--and it was not til