last occasion--and Dr. Maryland has left the Mountain.'

'I would not for the world be importunate! Perhaps you will
direct me if I shall inform any one of your hiding place--or do
you desire to have it remain such?'

'Thank you,' said Miss Hazel, framing the landscape in her
pink wreath and gazing at it intently, 'I suppose there is not
much danger. But if you see Mr. Falkirk you may reveal to him
my distressed condition. He needs stimulus occasionally.'

Rollo lifted his hat with his usual Spanish courtesy; then
disappeared, but not indeed by the way he had come. He threw
himself upon an outstanding oak branch, from which, lightly
and lithely, as if he had been the red squirrel himself, he
dropped to some place out of sight. One or two bounds,
rustling amid leaves and branches, and he had gone from
hearing as well as from view.

Wych Hazel had time to meditate. Doubtless she once more
scanned the rocks by which inexplicably she had let herself
down to her present position; but in vain, no strength or
agility of hers, unaided, could avail to get up them again.
Indeed it was not easy to see how aid could mend the matter.
Miss Hazel left considering the question. It was a wild place
she was in, and wild things suited it; the very birds,
unaccustomed to disturbance, hopped near her and eyed her out
of their bright eyes. If they could have given somewhat of
their practical sageness to the human creature they were
watching! Wych Hazel had very little of it, and just then, in