A light broke upon Armitage. “You mean that they have the child hidden in the bear’s den?” he cried.
“Yes, lord, he is hidden in the bear’s den. And now, with your gracious permission, we must go a long way into the woods, in case the gipsies send after us, and then we must come back to this same place.”
Armitage took out his compass and made the necessary observations, and then he and Sotīri plunged into the forest and walked on till they were tired. Dusk was beginning to fall, and retracing their steps was a long and painful process. It was quite dark when at length they arrived again at the edge of the wood, at a point where, by going a few steps further, they could look down the gorge, and see the twinkling lights which showed where the gipsies were cooking their supper in the mouths of their caves. Sotīri helped Armitage into his coat, unfastened the straps of the provision-basket, and retired to a respectful distance. It was a mild night, and the withered beech-leaves made a comfortable couch. Armitage ate and drank, and then reflected that if Sotīri were as hungry as he was, the share of food which he had given him on his horrified refusal to sit down and eat with his employer must be quite insufficient. He called to the boy, in a low voice at first, then louder, but no answer came. Following the direction he had taken, he came upon him, wrapped in his kapota, fast asleep, with the untasted food by his side. Armitage stole back to his place without waking him.
“They may say what they like, but that is a fine creature!” he said to himself.
CHAPTER XV.
THE ACME.
After smoking a cigar or two, Armitage fell into a doze, from which he tried at first to rouse himself by spasmodic efforts, but reflecting that in any case it must be hours before they could safely approach the gipsy settlement, he allowed himself after a time to yield to the drowsiness that was overpowering him. From this he was roused at last by an anxious voice.
“Lord, where are you? Lord, lord!” and almost simultaneously some one stumbled and fell over him.
Armitage sat up. “Gently, Sotīri, gently! What’s the matter, lad?”
An embarrassed laugh answered him out of the darkness, where Sotīri was presumably picking himself up. “I don’t know, lord; I think I must have been dreaming. I woke up and was frightened to find myself in the forest in the dark, and then I went the wrong way to look for you and could not find you, and I thought you had gone away and left me——”
“To storm the gipsy caves by myself? Hardly. Stand in front of me, boy, while I see what the time is.”