Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/213

 "O yes, if you want to come. This is the road," she added, as she took Robin by the hand; "and you must be very careful how you go, else you 'll fall and hurt yourselves."

Great was the amazement, and not slight the alarm of Meerta, when she beheld her little charge thus piloting two strangers down the hill. She spoke hurriedly to her blind companion, and at first seemed disposed to hide herself, but the man evidently dissuaded her from such a course, and when Letta ran forward, seized her hard old hands and said that God had sent people to take her back to mamma, she dismissed her fears and took to laughing immoderately.

It soon became evident to our adventurers that the woman was in her dotage, while the old man was so frail that only a few of the sands of life remained to ran. They both understood a little English, but spoke in such a remarkably broken manner, that there was little prospect of much additional information being obtained from them.

"You hungry—hungry?" asked the old woman, with a sudden gleam of hospitality. "Com—com—me gif you for heat."

She took Robin by the hand and led him towards a cavern, the mouth of which had not been visible higher up the mountain. Sam followed, led by Letta.

The interior of the cavern was lofty and the