When Dacres made his attempt upon the house he was not so unobserved as he supposed himself to be.  Minnie and Mrs. Willoughby happened at that time to be sitting on the floor by the window, one on each side, and they were looking out.  They had chosen the seat as affording some prospect of the outer world.  There was in Mrs. Willoughby a certain instinctive feeling that if any rescue came, it would come from the land side; and, therefore, though the hope was faint indeed, it nevertheless was sufficiently well defined to inspire her with an uneasy and incessant vigilance.  Thus, then, she had seated herself by the window, and Minnie had taken her place on the opposite side, and the two sisters, with clasped hands, sat listening to the voices of the night.

At length they became aware of a movement upon the bank just above them and lying opposite.  The sisters clasped one another’s hands more closely, and peered earnestly through the gloom.  It was pretty dark, and the forest threw down a heavy shadow, but still their eyes were by this time accustomed to the dark, and they could distinguish most of the objects there.  Among these they soon distinguished a moving figure; but what it was, whether man or beast, they could not make out.

This moving figure was crawling down the bank.  There was no cover to afford concealment, and it was evident that he was trusting altogether to the concealment of the darkness.  It was a hazardous experiment, and Mrs. Willoughby trembled in suspense.

Minnie, however, did not tremble at all, nor was the suspense at all painful.  When Mrs. Willoughby first cautiously directed her attention to it in a whisper, Minnie thought it was some animal.

“Why, Kitty dear,” she said, speaking back in a whisper, “why, it’s an animal; I wonder if the creature is a wild beast.  I’m sure I think it’s very dangerous, and no doors or windows.  But it’s always the way.  He wouldn’t give me a chair; and so I dare say I shall be eaten up by a bear before morning.”

Minnie gave utterance to this expectation without the slightest excitement, just as though the prospect of becoming food for a bear was one of the very commonest incidents of her life.

“Oh, I don’t think it’s a bear.”

“Well, then, it’s a tiger or a lion, or perhaps a wolf.  I’m sure I don’t see what difference it makes what one is eaten by, when one has to be eaten.”

“It’s a man!” said Mrs. Willoughby, tremulously.

“A man!—­nonsense, Kitty darling.  A man walks; he doesn’t go on all-fours, except when he is very, very small.”

“Hush! it’s some one coming to help us.  Watch him, Minnie dear.  Oh, how dangerous!”

“Do you really think so?” said Minnie, with evident pleasure.  “Now that is really kind.  But I wonder who it can be?”

Mrs. Willoughby squeezed her hand, and made no reply.  She was watching the slow and cautious movement of the shadowy figure.