"You must have a long patience, Fräulein Elspeth, for I may never come this way again."
Elspeth was on the verge of tears.
"But what is this?" asked Nigel. "It seems to me that the rocks close in and that there is no passage, though I suppose the brook runs out by some crevice. Do we have to climb the rocks?"
"We are coming to the Dragon's Gorge. After that we shall have the wide forest again."
"We must wait till the men come up with us!" said Nigel.
"I could wait all day!" sighed the maiden, gazing at him with large eyes and then dropping her eyelids.
In a minute or two they heard the sound of hurrying feet, in another Sergeant Blick and his men came panting up as fast as they could run.
"The Bohemians!" said Blick. "Count von Teschen!" Presently the jingle and clatter of men and horses echoed along the rocky walls.
"No horses can get through the Dragon's Gorge," said Elspeth. "Come!" She led them to the rocks, and there a narrow passage disclosed itself, the width of a broad man, no more. It was as if the rocks had once been one and been split asunder by some mighty rent. The brook flowed to the opening, and the rocks' sides were covered with mosses and ferns up and up, through which there was an eternal trickle of water, and high above all were the tree-tops.