That was the death-ruckle; he's dead.' Sounds were now heard at a distance, as of voices.

'They are coming,' said she to Brown; 'you are a dead man if ye had as mony lives as hairs.' Brown eagerly looked round for some weapon of defence.

There was none near.

He then rushed to the door with the intention of plunging among the trees, and making his escape by flight from what he now esteemed a den of murderers, but Merrilies held him with a masculine grasp.

'Here,' she said, 'here, be still and you are safe; stir not, whatever you see or hear, and nothing shall befall you.' Brown, in these desperate circumstances, remembered this woman's intimation formerly, and thought he had no chance of safety but in obeying her.