Then he held the horse faster than ever, and shut his eyes.
* * * * * Was it a minute only, or an hour, till they heard the sound of the voices dying away in the roar of the river?
and, opening their eyes once more, looked into one another's faces.
Faces, they thought, that they had never seen before,--so each told the other afterwards,--so wild, so haggard, and so strange! And now that they were safe and free again--free to arise and leave their dreadful rock prison, and wander away where they would, they could scarcely believe that the danger was past.
They came out silently from among the crags, and took up another station, where they could see all that went on.

They saw the miscreants swarming about the house, and heard a pistol-shot--only one.
"Who can they be firing at ?" said Alice, in a subdued tone.

They were both so utterly appalled by their late danger, that they spoke in whispers, though the enemy were a quarter of a mile off.
"Mere mischief, I should fancy," said Sam; "there is no one there.

Oh! Alice, my love, can you realize that we are safe ?" "Hardly yet, Sam! But who could those men be we saw at such a distance on the plain?
Could they have been cattle?
I am seldom deceived, you know; I can see an immense distance." "Why," said Sam, "I had forgotten them! They must be our friends, on these fellows' tracks.

Desborough would not be long starting, I know." "I hope my father," said Alice, "will hear nothing till he sees me.
Poor father! what a state he will be in.