forest, with the face of the rock forming an immediate screen from
outside intrusion.

'You wonder, I presume, youngster,' the chief observed, 'why our
good company run the risk of building a fire at night in this wood.
Well, such an indiscretion we are not guilty of when the moon is out;
but to-night no foot save a practised one could make its way through
the underwood.'

'But might they not carry lanterns?'

'I grant you; but a light is an object that we as well as they can
see. Besides, coming here in the dark is about the last thing in this
wide world that the guardians of order would think of doing. Their
visits were too fatal in the open day for that.'

At the table the liquor circulated freely, and as it was cognac,
twenty years old, as the robber chief swore, it soon brought up the
spirits of the gang. To his great disgust, Roland perceived that the
girls drank almost as freely as the men. After Nancy had quaffed a
couple of horns, the melancholy which the new-comer had a little
while before noticed so plainly in her face disappeared; and she
began to bestow marked attentions upon the handsome and well-bred
stranger. Not an act of hers escaped the jealous eye of Murfrey; and
as the miserable girl was in the act of passing something to Roland,
the robber gave her a violent blow upon the arm.

'You are too d--d ready with your attentions,' he growled, and then
swore a terrible oath. Nancy turned and looked upon him with flashing
eyes; and ferocious and bloody as the man was, she did not fear him.