Alwin seemed unable to let go his last hope, and began again imploringly, "Edred, I _know_ it said if people got into these caverns they were to call to the King; do let us try." "Call and wake the monster?" asked Edred, mockingly. "Besides, who could hear?" "I shall try," whispered Alwin, "for I feel I shall soon have no strength left." Edred made a gesture as if to reply, when the enemy roused himself suddenly, and before either of them had time to speak or move, he had sprung across the cavern. I saw the two boys disappear beneath his awful form. A fearful cry rent the air, a cry of agony, but a cry too which seemed to expect an answer. The fiend grappled with them both, and gave them blow after blow. Still spell-bound I watched, feeling myself turned to stone with horror. But what did I hear? Surely above the cruel strokes which resounded on the bodies of these captive boys, surely above their cries for help, and moans of anguish, I heard another sound--a sound of rescue, coming nearer and nearer? Did the evil creature hear it too? Did he not strike the faster, that there might be no deliverance; that the deliverance might be too late? A strange light approached along one of the passages, and all at once One entered the cavern, and dealt a swift blow at the fiend, which made him relax his hold, only to tighten it more painfully. "I have come to deliver those that are appointed to die," said a voice of heavenly sweetness; but the fiend turned on Him with blows, fiercer and deadlier than those he had given the boys, and there ensued such a terrible combat that my very heart failed me. By-and-by I found that the fiend seemed to grow weaker and weaker, and the Deliverer, though wounded and bleeding, was a Conqueror. The evil creature at last sank down in the mire, motionless, his grasp loosened from the poor boys, and the Conqueror came up to them and raised them from the ground. Alwin had just sufficient strength left to clasp the feet of his Deliverer with a cry of love, but Edred neither spoke nor moved. "Edred," said the tender voice, "I have fought, and he who held thee is conquered; wilt thou come with Me?" Edred groaned. "Thou wilt not stay here, Edred?" again said the loving tone reproachfully. "I am not worthy," moaned Edred, "I disobeyed----" "Nay, nay, thou art not worthy; but I have loved thee, and have done it all for thee. Edred, wilt thou refuse?" Then I heard a broken cry of grateful acquiescence, and the two lost, hopeless boys were clasped to that bosom of love. And Alwin whispered, "Thou hast been wounded in the sore fight, for I can feel Thy blood flowing upon me!" "That was the price at which I rescued thee," answered the Deliverer, "and thou shalt find when we come into the Light that the Blood of the King's Son worketh marvels for thee." "Art Thou the King's Son?" asked Edred as they moved forward from this cavern of Death.