At length she began to hear sounds, and they were of human voices. She had companions then in the grave! she was not doomed to a solitary waiting for judgment! She must be in some family-vault, among strangers. She hoped they were nice people: it was very desirable to be buried with nice people! Then she saw a reddish light. It was a fire--far off! Was she in the bad place? Were those shapes two demons, waiting till she had got over her dying? She listened:--"That will divide her between us," said one. "Yes," answered the other; "there will be no occasion to cut it!" What dreadful thing could they mean? But surely she had heard their voices before! She tried to speak, but could not. "We must come again soon!" said one. "At this rate it will take a life-time to carve the tomb." "If we were but at the roof of it!" said the other. "I long to tackle the great serpent of eternity, and lay him twining and coiling and undulating all over it! I dream about those tombs before ever they were broken into-royally furnished in the dark, waiting for the souls to come back to their old, brown, dried up bodies!" Here one of them rose and came toward her, growing bigger and blacker as he came, until he stood by the bedside. He laid his hand on her wrist, and felt her pulse. It was Ian! She could not see his face for there was no light on it, but she knew his shape, his movements! She was saved! He saw her wide eyes, two great spiritual nights, gazing up at him. "All, you are better, Miss Mercy!" lie said cheerily. "Now you shall have some tea!" Something inside her was weeping for joy, but her outer self was quite still. She tried again to speak, and uttered a few inarticulate sounds. Then came Alister on tip-toe, and they stood both by the bedside, looking down on her. "I shall be all right presently!"' she managed at length to say. "I am so glad I'm not dead! I thought I was dead!" "You would soon have been if we had not found you!" replied Alister. "Was it you that fired the gun?" "Yes." "I was so frightened!" "It saved your life, thank God! for then you cried out." "Fright was your door out of fear!" said Ian. "I thought it was the leopard!" "I did bring my gun because of the leopard," said Alister. "It was true about him then?" "He is out." "And now it is quite dark!" "It doesn't signify; we'll take a lantern; I've got my gun, and Ian has his dirk!" "Where are you going then?" asked Mercy, still confused. "Home, of course." "Oh, yes, of course! I will get up in a minute." "There is plenty of time," said Ian. "You must eat something before you get up. We, have nothing but oat-cakes, I am sorry to say!" "I think you promised me some tea!" said Mercy. "I don't feel hungry." "You shall have the tea. When did you eat last?" "Not since breakfast." "It is a marvel you are able to speak! You must try to eat some oat-cake." "I wish I hadn't taken that last slice of deer-ham!" said Alister, ruefully. "I will eat if I can," said Mercy.