Effie’s face fell, and he noticed it.
“Not for long, my little Red Riding-Hood,” he said, kindly. “I’ll be back early in the morning. I only came to tell you that if you want anything, you are to go to the door at the other end of the passage, and knock. Don’t be afraid. You are quite safe. Good-night, again.”
“Leonard,” said Effie, “that is a good robber, and I’m sorry he has gone. He puts me in mind of the story of the good robber in the Babes in the Wood. I hope there isn’t a bad robber, though, who will want to kill us.”
“We must say our prayers, Eff, and never fear.”
“I wish though, Leonie, that we had not come away so far from home gipsying. Poor papa and mamma—what will they think?”
About two hours afterwards, when both were sound asleep, they were suddenly awakened by a noise in the room. They started from their couches and looked about, Effie terribly frightened, and Leonard just a little. It was a stone dropped from the roof, and there it lay.
“Hist!” cried a voice from above, in a loud whisper, “are you asleep?”
“No,” from Leonard. “Who is it, and where are you?”
“Don’t be afraid; it’s only Zella, the little gipsy lass you saw in the woods when her granny was dying. I am up here outside on the hill, talking down to you through a little hole.”
“Can you take us away out of this place?” asked Leonard.