just at that happy age when the senses are keen and on the alert. He heard the cry, and glancing round he saw through a break in the hedge that a lady was looking over the wall which skirted the lane they had passed. He mentioned the fact to his mistress.
"Maybe we'd better go back, ma'am," he said.
"Maybe we'd better not, John," said the buxom lady. "People can look over their garden walls without our interfering with them, can't they?"
"Yes, ma'am, but she was a-hollerin' at us."
"No, John, was she though? Maybe this is a private road and we have no right to be on it."
"She gave a holler as if some one was a-hurtin' of her," said John with decision.
"Then we'll go back," said the lady, and turned the pony round.
Hence it came about that just as Kate was descending with a sad heart from her post of observation, she was electrified to see the brown pony reappear and come trotting round the curve of the lane, with a rapidity which was altogether foreign to that quadruped's usual habits. Indeed, the girl turned so very white at the sight, and her face assumed such an expression of relief and delight, that the lady who was approaching saw at once that it was no common matter which had caused her to summon them.
"What is it, my dear?" she cried, pulling up when she came abreast of the place. Her good, kind heart was touched already by the pleading expression upon the girl's sweet face.
"Oh, madam, whoever you may be," said Kate, in a low, rapid voice, "I believe God has sent you here this day. I am shut up in these grounds, and shall be murdered unless help comes."
"Be murdered!" cried the lady in the pony-carriage, dropping back in her seat and raising her hands in astonishment.
"It is only too true," Kate said, trying to speak concisely and clearly so as to enforce conviction, but feeling a choking
