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There was a cabin built alainst the palisade, and here one ht we found both asleep I shook the younger to his feet, and heartily cursed hience He listened stupidly, and read as stupidly, by the light of his lantern, the pass which I thrust beneath his nose Staggering to his feet, and drunk with his unlawful sluate for full threeopen and showed the road beyond "It's all right," he ht, the three of ye!"

"Are you drunk or drugged?" I demanded "There are only two It's not sleep that is the matter with you What is it?"

Heat us with dull, unseeing eyes Soed, for aught I know When we had gone soain, in precisely the saate creaked to, and we heard the bars drawn across it

Without the palisade was a space of waste land,to the narrow strip of sand and scrub joining the peninsula to the forest, and here and there upon this waste ground rose a mean house, dwelt in by the poorer sort All were dark We left them behind, and found ourselves upon the neck, with the desolate murmur of the river on either hand, and before us the deep blackness of the forest Suddenly Diccon stopped in his tracks and turned his head "I did hear so then," he muttered "Look, sir!"

The stars faintly lit the road that had been trodden hard and bare by the feet of all who ca toward us, so low and dark, that moved not fast, and not slow, but with a measured and relentless pace "A panther!" said Diccon

We watched the creature with ry, or wantonly irritated, these great cats were cowardly enough It would hardly attack the two of us Nearer and nearer it ca no attention to the withered branch hich Diccon tried to scare it off When it was so close that we could see the white of its breast it stopped, looking at us with large unfaltering eyes, and slightlyits tail to and fro