She hears a shout as if in answer; and the hoarse murmur of threatening voices fills her heart with fear. She has twisted her ankle on the rough stones, and now, when she tries to move, she cannot, so she crouches back against the wall and waits for the help that she is sure is coming in an agony that is fast merging into unconsciousness.
"Honor, where are you? Speak!"
She tries to answer: but her voice has failed her; she can only moan faintly in her great pain.
And clearly, above all the sounds of this terrible night, she hears a man's voice saying sternly:
"Back, Magill! Would yez risk the lives of your friends for the sake of a woman?"
Then comes silence—a great silence—and darkness; and the terror and the pain and the longing for Brian all fade away together.
* * * * *
Fortunately Honor's swoon does not last long. The cold night air revives her, and she opens her eyes to see Brian Beresford kneeling beside her. He had almost stumbled over her in his eager search for her, and at the first glance he thought that she was dead.
Everything is intensely quiet as the girl raises her head from his shoulder and looks round her with terrified eyes. There is not a sound to tell that the place has so lately been filled with armed men.
"Where are they?" she whispers, trembling. "Oh, Brian, if they come back they will kill us both!"