"My boy! my boy!" murmured Lady Helena; "these savages did not kill you?"
"No, madam," replied Robert. "Somehow, during the uproar, I succeeded in escaping their vigilance. I crossed the yard. For two days I kept hidden behind the bushes. At night I wandered about, longing to see you again. While the tribe were occupied with the funeral of the chief, I came and examined this side of the fortification, where the prison stands, and saw that I could reach you. I stole this knife and rope in a deserted hut. The tufts of grass and the bushes helped me to climb. By chance I found a kind of grotto hollowed out in the very rock against which this hut rests. I had only a few feet to dig in the soft earth, and here I am."
Twenty silent kisses were his only answer.
"Let us start," said he, in a decided tone.
"Is Paganel below?" inquired Glenarvan.
"Mr. Paganel?" repeated the boy, surprised apparently at the question.
"Yes; is he waiting for us?"
"No, my lord. What! is he not here?"
"He is not, Robert," replied Mary Grant.
"What! have you not seen him?" exclaimed Glenarvan. "Did you not meet each other in the confusion? Did you not escape together?"