asked Bessie, as they neared the point where she had first seen her
ally."

"I don't know yet," said Lolla, frankly. "If Peter is on the trail it
will be harder. I hope he will be inside, so that we can slip by without
his seeing us. If he is, and we get by, then you are to wait until you
hear me sing. So."

She sang a bar or two of a gypsy melody, and repeated it until Bessie,
too, could hum it, to prove that she had it right, and would not fail to
recognize it.

"When you hear me sing that, remember that you must run down and go to
your friend. Here is nay knife. Use it to cut the cords that tie her.
Then you and she must go back toward the rocks where you went down. And
when you hear me sing again you are to go down, as quickly as you can,
but quietly, and, as soon as you are past the place where she was
hidden, you must start running. I will try to catch up with you and go
with you, but do not wait for me."

"I don't quite understand," Bessie began.

But now Lolla was the general, brooking no defiance. She stamped her
foot.

"It does not matter whether you understand or not," she said sharply.
"If you want me to save your friend and get back to the others you must
do as you are told, and quickly. Now, come."

They went on up the trail, and, at the bend just below the spot where