We crept down the stairs a true couple of runaways. The door was secured by a wooden bar. I removed the bar, and we went out into the road. The stables lay to the right of the inn, and leaving Ilga where she stood, I crossed over to them and rapped quietly at the window. The ostler let me in, and we saddled quickly Ilga's horse and mine. I gave the fellow all of my three months' savings, and bidding him go back to his bed, brought the horses into the road. I lifted Ilga into the saddle. "So," she said, bending over me, and her heart looked through her eyes, "the lath was steel after all, and I only found it out when the steel cut me." And that night we rode hand in hand to Innspruck. Once she trilled out a snatch of song, and I knew indeed that Jack Larke was waiting for me at Lukstein. For the words she sang were from an old ballad of Froissart: Que toutes joies et toutes honneurs Viennent d'armes et d'amours. THE END. * * * * * F. M. EVANS AND CO., LIMITED, PRINTERS, CRYSTAL PALACE, S.E.