“But why and wherefore are you here?” exclaimed her astonished brother; “and how knew you of this place at all?”
Frances entered at once into a brief detail of what had occurred at the house since their departure, and the motives which induced her to seek them.
“But,” said Birch, “why follow us here, when we were left on the opposite hill?”
Frances related the glimpse she had caught of the hut and the peddler, in her passage through the Highlands, and her immediate conjecture that the fugitives would seek shelter of this habitation for the night.
The peddler seemed satisfied; for he drew back, and watching his opportunity, unseen by Henry, slipped behind the screen, and entered the cavern.
Frances and her brother, who thought his companion had passed through the door, continued conversing on the latter’s situation for several minutes, when the former urged the necessity of expedition on his part, in order to precede Dunwoodie, from whose sense of duty they knew they had no escape. The captain took out his pocket-book, and wrote a few lines with his pencil; then folding the paper, he handed it to his sister.
“Frances,” he said, “you have this night proved yourself to be an incomparable woman. As you love me, give that unopened letter to Dunwoodie, and remember that two hours may save my life.”
“I will—I will; but why delay? Why not fly, and improve these precious moments?”
“Your sister says well, Captain Wharton,” exclaimed Harvey, who had reëntered unseen; “we must go at once. Here is food to eat as we travel.”
“But who is to see this fair creature in safety?” cried the captain. “I can never desert my sister in such a place as this.”