yours and here's mine. Garibaldi's been eating grass all day, so she's
not hungry."

Lucia accepted the candy, and they both had a drink of milk. Then
Beppi snuggled down in his sister's arms and his eyelids grew heavy.

"Go on with that story," he said, "the one about the soldier at the
gate."

Lucia smiled in the dark and hugged him tight. The guns were silent,
and only occasional peals of thunder broke the stillness.

"Well, one day," she began, "a very cross girl came to the gate, and
the soldier who was always on the lookout for the stolen princess
stopped her and spoke to her. But the cross girl was feeling very mean
indeed, and she teased the soldier and made him very unhappy. But
later on in the afternoon she was ashamed, and so she found the nice
girl who was really the stolen princess, and took her with her to the
gate, and the soldier--"

Lucia broke off and sat up suddenly to listen. A queer "rat, tat,
tat," detached itself from the other night noises. Beppi was sound
asleep, and she rolled him gently into the nest of leaves, then she
listened again. The sound came again.

"Rat, tat, tat." It was a sharp staccato hammering, muffled by the
wall of rock behind her.

She stood up and crept softly to the mouth of the cave.