"Go not to the door, Sonia, open it not!" cried a man's voice within. "Who knows but it may be the police?"
"Nay," replied a woman's sweet tones, "the police will not come hither. Have no fears, my dear. I will see who knocks."
The door opened, and a young woman asked:
"Who are you, my children, and what do you alone in the heart of the forest at this early hour?" she said gently.
And her face was so kind and true, and her voice so sweet, that Alf at once resolved to tell her all and enlist her sympathies.
"Wilt thou, in thy goodness of heart," he said, "suffer us children to enter your cottage, and sleep for an hour or two in some corner? We are chilled to the bone and spent with weariness, for we have ridden for hours in the bitter cold, and been chased by wolves, so that it is only of God's mercy that we have come through at all. But we will tell thee our whole story if we may but come in."
[CHAPTER IX.]
A WONDERFUL MEETING—HOW PAMPHIL ESCAPED FROM PRISON.
"ENTER in God's name, my poor little doves," said the woman. "And thou, my husband, make room by the fire for our frozen visitors! Hearest thou, sleepy one? These children are ice-cold, and thou halt been roasting this hour or more and now art done to a turn." And she laughed softly.
Bert crossed the threshold and entered the hut, but Alf still stood outside, his arm through Sharik's rein.