"Thanks to our country's gods you have come!" she said. "A few
minutes later and all would have been over with me and my children.
See, one has already made his way through the roof, and in half a
dozen places they have scratched holes well nigh large enough to
pass through."

"We heard your cry," Beric said, "and hastened forward at the top
of our speed."

"It was for you that I called," the woman said. "By what you said
this morning I judged you would be returning about this hour, and
it was in hopes you might hear me that I cried out, for I knew well
that no one else would be likely to be within earshot."

"Where is your husband?" Beric asked.

"He started this afternoon for Cardun. He and all the able bodied
men were ordered to assemble there tonight in readiness to begin
the war against the wolves at daybreak. There is no other house
within a mile, and even had they heard me there they could have
given me no assistance, seeing there are but women and children
remaining behind."

"They are coming again," Boduoc broke in; "I can hear their feet
pattering on the dead leaves. Which shall we do, Beric, pile more
wood on the fire, or let it go out altogether? I think that we shall
do better without it; it is from the roof that they will attack,
and if we have a light here we cannot see them till they are ready
to leap down; whereas, if we are in darkness we may be able to make