nsciousness.

"Honor, where are you? Speak!"

She tries to answer: but her voice has failed her; she can only moan
faintly in her great pain.

And clearly, above all the sounds of this terrible night, she hears a
man's voice saying sternly:

"Back, Magill! Would yez risk the lives of your friends for the sake of
a woman?"

Then comes silence--a great silence--and darkness; and the terror and
the pain and the longing for Brian all fade away together.

* * * * *

Fortunately Honor's swoon does not last long. The cold night air
revives her, and she opens her eyes to see Brian Beresford kneeling
beside her. He had almost stumbled over her in his eager search for
her, and at the first glance he thought that she was dead.

Everything is intensely quiet as the girl raises her head from his
shoulder and looks round her with terrified eyes. There is not a sound
to tell that the place has so lately been filled with armed men.

"Where are they?" she whispers, trembling. "Oh, Brian, if they come
back they will kill us both!"

The same thought is in his own mind; but not for worlds would he put it
into words. The men fled in a panic, thinking he was not alone; but let
them discover that they have only one man to face, and they will soon
return and make short work of him.

He knows it well; but what can he do? He cannot leave Honor, and, with
his wounded arm, it would be impossible for him to carry her so far as
the house. And as he holds her there, her cheeks against his shoulder,
her little cold hands in his, he thinks that death itself with her
might not be so very terrible after all.

"They will not come back," he tells her--"at least not yet. They will
be afraid."

But even as he speaks a stealthy footfall breaks the quiet, and a man's
voice says low and guardedly, yet distinct enough for them to hear:

"Have they had time to get to the house, Neil?"

"Troth an' they have, sor--twice over! I'd take my oath they didn't let
the grass grow under their feet, once they got free!"--and the man
laughs grimly, a low mocking laugh that echoes through the lonely place.

Honor clings more close to Brian, and shivers like one stricken with
ague. So far they have not been seen; and the men--Power Magill and his
servant--must have passed close to them. But any moment a stir, a heavy
breath may betray them.

"If I thought there was a chance of overtaking them, I would follow
them even n