"What! fired the house?"
"Yes. He said that there was fighting down the coast, and that if the people came our way we would not be safe. So he fired the house so that it would look as if an enemy did it, and he took us to the cave where——"
"Where you lost your handkerchief," said I.
She blushed brightly.
"Oh, did you find it, Mr. Jones?"
"Yes," said I, "I found it," and I put the little white thing into her hand.
"Is—is—this all you—you found, Mr. Jones?"
I knew that she was mine then, but I was merciful. I did not answer, but turned away and walked to the edge of the cliff, where Zalee was beckoning to me. He was standing there, looking downward. On the plain, some three hundred feet below, stood a man. He was in the open, perhaps six hundred feet away as the crow flies. He was looking upward. He waved his hand, it seemed, as if in astonishment. Zalee waved back to him. Of this, however, I did not approve.
Lacelle came up at that moment. The Smith followed.
"Tell him," I said, "that they will find us here if we show ourselves in this way." The Smith made Zalee understand this. He laughed, shook his head, and showed his white teeth.