—Breton Song.

CONTENTS

I[The Tower and the Well]
II[The Feast of Sainte Barbe]
III[The Wreck]
IV[The Home-coming]
V[The Lifting of the Veil]
VI[A Lull]
VII[Mischief]
VIII[The Tightening of the Net]
IX[Showing How Harvey Raymond Began the Attack]
X[Madeleine's Flight]
XI[Mutterings of the Storm]
XII[Wherein both the Reef and Mr. Raymond Yield Information]
XIII[Showing How Tollemache Took Charge]
XIV[A Breton Reckoning]

FLOWER OF THE GORSE

CHAPTER I
THE TOWER AND THE WELL

"O, là, là! See, then, the best of good luck for each one of us this year!"

Although Mère Pitou's rotund body, like Falstaff's, was fat and scant o' breath, and the Pilgrims' Way was steep and rocky, some reserve of energy enabled her to clap her hands and scream the tidings of high fortune when the notes of a deep-toned bell pealed from an alp still hidden among the trees.

Three girls, fifty paces higher up the path, halted when they heard that glad cry—and, indeed, who would not give ear to such augury?