“Good-bye, dear girl; I hope, and trust, and pray that you may come to no evil through your devotion to me,” said Eudora, kissing her humble friend.
“Never you fear, Miss; if any body comes to grief in this chase, it won’t be her as is hunted, but them as hunts, which is as much as to say it won’t be Tabitha Tabs!” said the latter, valiantly.
After once more pressing the hand of her faithful maid, Eudora followed Malcolm through the secret opening, leaving the brave Tabitha alone in the chamber.
CHAPTER VII.
THE FLIGHT.
“Fly, lady, fly before the wind!
The moor is wild and waste,
The hound of blood is close behind,
Haste! gentle lady, haste!”
After closing the sliding panel behind him, and carefully adjusting it in its place, Malcolm took the hand of his companion to guide her down the narrow, steep and dangerous steps that led to the secret passage. This caution was the more needful, as it was so dark that only Malcolm’s previous knowledge of the passage enabled him to feel his own way and guide his companion through it.
Something like an hundred perpendicular steps brought them down to a low and narrow archway, not unlike the entrance to a rudely constructed tunnel.