And the Boy kept looking down at Nig, and the birds sang, and the locust whirred, and the hot sun filled the tent as high-tide flushes a sea-cave.

To left and right on wall and turret, Eric glanced, then blew a blast upon the horn he carried; and immediately, from wall and turret mangonels, trebuchets and balistae unknown of until now crashed and whirred, and the tall tower shook and quivered 'neath the shock of great stones and heavy bolts, its massy timbers were split and rent, insomuch that it was fain to be withdrawn.

Its next salvo of shots went above us, and I ducked as they whirred overhead like a covey of fast partridges.

"I'll send cars all over," shouted the man, as Kurt whirred away.

The wind went sniffing suspiciously among the spruce branches; a startled bird chirped and whirred away out of their path; the brook roared among the rocks; a big salmon jumped and tumbled back with resounding splash, and jumped again as if the otter were after him.

Again he would be startled out of his wits as a large brown bird whirred and fluttered away from under his very nose.

Several partridges rose from the children's feet, and whirred noisily away, to the huge delight of the boys but to Avery's considerable dismay.

And over all whirred the murmur of wind sweeping the tops of the trees like a great harp, and the faint tapping on the tent as drops fell from the branches with a sharp pinging sound.

He laughed low and soft as the air whirred into his face, and now

And sing as some sweet warbling bird, Or in the breezes wave as grain, As yellow sun-birds there have whirred On earth, could I thus live again, That beauteous world enjoy!

Blue smoke eddied up as the motor roared and whirred.

The steel ball whirred around the rim and bounced down into a red numbered slot.

Round the palm-stems, round the creepers, Flashed a feathered jewel past, Ruby-crested, topaz-throated, Plucked the cocorite bast, Plucked the fallen ceiba-cotton, {333} Whirred away to build his nest, Hung at last, with happy humming, Round some flower he fancied best.

Bats flitted overhead, and big, silent moths whirred softly over the rhododendron blossoms.

A big moth whirred with a soft collision against one of the windows.

Save for this dull never-ceasing sound all would have been silent had not the owl hooted sometimes from among the tree-tops, and the night-jar whirred above their heads.

Nearer and nearer they came to the spot whence the flashes darted thickest, and all the time the bullets whirred over their heads.

After their belated supper, when Esther Nichols had gone over to a neighbour's, Horace, sitting by his mother's side, out in the honeysuckled porch, where the sphinx moths whirred like humming-birds of night, holding her hands in his, told her all.

And fat night-moths sucked honey from half-conscious flowers, and the same moths whirred duskily round our gathered roses or darted daringly into our faces.

His mind still whirred with a litter of half-digested sentences and ideas, however, and he was vividly haunted by the actuality of truth behind them all.

So white it stood among the trees, and so merrily whirred the wheel as the water turned it, and so bright blossomed the flowers in the garden, that Martimor had joy of the sight, for it reminded him of his own country.

Everywhere the sky was harrowed by the wedged wild geese, their voices as sweet as organ tones; and ducks quacked, whistled and whirred overhead, a true rain of birds beating up against the wind.

" Three weeks later, when the wheels of the local stage were beginning to throw a fine dust, instead of mud, as they whirred from St. Johns to Jason, Bud Shoop received a tiny flat package addressed in an unfamiliar hand.

Blue grouse whirred from under our horses' feet.

She always waited for me in the low-ceilinged room, where her sewing-machine, afternoons, whirred, monotonous and tiresome as a clock, and where, evenings, there was a lamp beside her which somehow seemed to look like herself.

That gentleman had not lost a word of the conversation, and his sleepy eyes now opened.

"Well, sir, that fellow, I say, had the audacity to consult me upon a legal pointwhether the tailor O'Brallaghan, being bound over to keep the peace, could attack him without forfeiting his recognizancesthat villain Jinks, I say, had the outrageous audacity to ask my opinion on this point, and then when I gave it, to rise and say that it was a fine morning, and so strut out, without another word.

Perhaps the word Providence may explain the matter.

They were once more children, and they wandered thus through the beautiful forest, collecting their memories, laughing here, sighing thereand giving an association or a word to every feature of the little landscape.

They scarcely interchanged a word, but the hand of the girl was imprisoned in his own; and the tenderness which had been slowly gathering for months into love, pure, and deep, and strong, flushed his ingenuous face, and made his eyes swim in tears.

"'Cap'n Tarbell can't be long now,' I ses, as soon as I could get a word in.

I never said a word.

"Ginger and Peter looked at each other, but they was so hungry they didn't say a word; they just stood waiting.

In the same Iland there groweth great plenty of cloues, cubibez, and nutmegs, and in a word all kinds of spices are there to be had, and great abundance of all victuals except wine.

In whose presence likewise stand his Barons and diuers others of his nobilitie, with great traines of folowers after them, of whom none dare speake so much as one word, vnlease they haue obtained licence of the emperor so to doe, except his iesters and stage-players, who are appointed of purpose to solace their lord.

Within this wall there were the fairest and most chrystall fountaines in the whole world: and about the sayd fountaines there were most beautifull virgins in great number, and goodly horses also, and in a word, euery thing that could be deuised for bodily solace and delight, and therefore the inhabitants of the countrey call the same place by the name of Paradise.

All the premisses abouewritten friar William de Solanga hath put downe in writing euen as the foresayd frier Odoricus vttered them by word of mouth, in the yeere of our Lord 1330.

That is, he only supposes her to have uttered the word by an argument which presumes it impossible for anybody to have done otherwise.

He pronounces it "fine and sombre," but, I lament to add, "sceptical, Judaic, Satanicin a word, Anti-Christian."

But fame, in the proper sense of the word, can never disappear; for the action or work by which it was acquired can never be undone; and fame attaches to its author, even though he does nothing to deserve it anew.

[Illustration: X.] x There is no word in the English language beginning with this letter.

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The prisoners trudged up through the village ironed two and two together, while people stood at their doors or followed them, the men greeting them with a kindly word, for we knew most of them as Ringstave and Monkbury men, and the women sorrowing for their wives.

and there I'll have a word with Elzevir, who sadly needs the talk of kindly friends to cheer him, and we'll find you a glass of Hollands to keep out autumn chills.

CHAPTER 4 IN THE VAULT Let us hob and nob with DeathTennyson Though nothing of the vault except the roof was visible from where I lay, and so I could not see these visitors, yet I heard every word spoken, and soon made out one voice as being Master Ratsey's.

The paper was yellow, and showed a lattice of folds where it had been pressed into the locket; but the handwriting, though small, was clear and neat, and there was no mistaking a word of what was there set down.

I understood now how it was that I had heard talking so long after the company had left the vault; for it was clear that Ratsey had been as good as his word, and that the falling in of the ground had been repaired before the contraband-men went home that night.

Now one would suppose that an author who had invented this monstrous and staggering concatenation of chances, must hope to justify it by some highly dramatic situation, in the obvious and commonplace sense of the word.

" But the youngest daughter said, "Dear father, this must be a good man who has assisted you out of your troubles; if you have promised him a bride for the service your word must be kept" It was a pity the man's face was covered with dirt and hair, else one would have seen how glad at heart these words made him.

But the bride sat opposite to him dressed in black, neither opening her eyes nor speaking a word.