We left Andy in what may be called a delicate situation, and though Andy's perceptions of the refined were not very acute, he himself began to wonder how he should get out of the dilemma into which circumstances had thrown him; and even to his dull comprehension various terminations to his adventure suggested themselves, till he became quite confused in the chaos which his own thoughts created. One good idea, however, Andy contrived to lay hold of out of the bundle which perplexed him; he felt that to gain time would be an advantage, and if evil must come of his adventure, the longer he could keep it off the better; so he kept up his affectation of timidity, and put in his sobs and lamentations, like so many commas and colons, as it were, to prevent Bridget from arriving at her climax of going to bed.

Bridget insisted bed was the finest thing in the world for a young woman in distress of mind.

Andy protested he never could get a wink of sleep when his mind was uneasy. Bridget promised the most sisterly tenderness.

Andy answered by a lament for his mother.

“Come to bed, I tell you,” said Bridget.

“Are the sheets aired?” sobbed Andy.

“What!” exclaimed Bridget, in amazement.

“If you are not sure of the sheets bein' aired,” said Andy, “I'd be afeard of catchin' cowld.”

“Sheets, indeed!” said Bridget; “'faith, it's a dainty lady you are, if you can't sleep without sheets.”

“What!” returned Andy, “no sheets?”

“Divil a sheet.”

“Oh, mother, mother!” exclaimed Andy, “what would you say to your innocent child being tuk away to a place where there was no sheets?”

“Well, I never heerd the like!” says Bridget.

“Oh, the villains! to bring me where I wouldn't have a bit o' clane linen to lie in!”

“Sure, there's blankets, I tell you.”

“Oh, don't talk to me!” roared Andy; “sure, you know, sheets is only dacent.”

“Bother, girl! Isn't a snug woolly blanket a fine thing?”

“Oh, don't brake my heart that-a-way!” sobbed Andy; “sure, there's wool on any dirty sheep's back, but linen is dacency! Oh, mother, mother, if you thought your poor girl was without a sheet this night!”

And so Andy went on, spinning his bit of “linen manufacture” as long as he could, and raising Bridget's wonder that, instead of the lament which abducted ladies generally raise about their “vartue,” this young woman's principal complaint arose on the scarcity of flax. Bridget appealed to common sense if blankets were not good enough in these bad times; insisting, moreover, that, as “love was warmer than friendship, so wool was warmer than flax,” the beauty of which parallel case nevertheless failed to reconcile the disconsolate abducted. Now Andy had pushed his plea of the want of linen as far as he thought it would go, and when Bridget returned to the charge, and reiterated the oft-repeated “Come to bed, I tell you!” Andy had recourse to twiddling about his toes, and chattering his teeth, and exclaimed in a tremulous voice, “Oh, I've a thrimblin' all over me!”

“Loosen the sthrings o' you, then,” said Bridget, about to suit the action to the word. “Ow! ow!” cried Andy, “don't touch me—I'm ticklish.”

“Then open the throat o' your gown yourself, dear,” said Bridget.

“I've a cowld on my chest, and darn't,” said Andy; “but I think a dhrop of hot punch would do me good if I had it.”

“And plenty of it,” said Bridget, “if that'll plaze you.” She rose as she spoke, and set about getting “the materials” for making punch.

Andy hoped, by means of this last idea, to drink Bridget into a state of unconsciousness, and then make his escape; but he had no notion, until he tried, what a capacity the gentle Bridget had for carrying tumblers of punch steadily; he proceeded as cunningly as possible, and, on the score of “the thrimblin' over him,” repeated the doses of punch, which, nevertheless, he protested he couldn't touch, unless Bridget kept him in countenance, glass for glass; and Bridget—genial soul—was no way both; for living in a still, and among smugglers, as she did, it was not a trifle of stingo could bring her to a halt. Andy, even with the advantage of the stronger organisation of a man, found this mountain lass nearly a match for him, and before the potations operated as he hoped upon her, his own senses began to feel the influence of the liquor, and his caution became considerably undermined.

Still, however, he resisted the repeated offers of the couch proposed to him, declaring he would sleep in his clothes, and leave to Bridget the full possession of her lair.

The fire began to burn low, and Andy thought he might facilitate his escape by counterfeiting sleep; so feigning slumber as well as he could, he seemed to sink into insensibility, and Bridget unrobed herself and retired behind a rough screen.

It was by a great effort that Andy kept himself awake, for his potations, added to his nocturnal excursion, tended towards somnolency; but the desire of escape, and fear of a discovery and its consequences, prevailed over the ordinary tendency of nature, and he remained awake, watching every sound. The silence at last became painful—so still was it, that he could hear the small crumbling sound of the dying embers as they decomposed and shifted their position on the hearth, and yet he could not be satisfied from the breathing of the woman that she slept. After the lapse of half an hour, however, he ventured to make some movement. He had well observed the quarter in which the outlet from the cave lay, and there was still a faint glimmer from the fire to assist him in crawling towards the trap. It was a relief when, after some minutes of cautious creeping, he felt the fresh air breathing from above, and a moment or two more brought him in contact with the ladder. With the stealth of a cat he began to climb the rungs—he could hear the men snoring on the outside of the cave: step by step as he arose he felt his heart beat faster at the thought of escape, and became more cautious. At length his head emerged from the cave, and he saw the men lying about its mouth; they lay close around it—he must step over them to escape—the chance is fearful, but he determines to attempt it—he ascends still higher—his foot is on the last rung of the ladder—the next step puts him on the heather—when he feels a hand lay hold of him from below!

His heart died within him at the touch, and he could not resist an exclamation.

“Who's that?” exclaimed one of the men outside. Andy crouched.

“Come down,” said the voice softly from below; “if Jack sees you, it will be worse for you.”

It was the voice of Bridget, and Andy felt it was better to be with her than exposed to the savagery of Shan More and his myrmidons; so he descended quietly, and gave himself up to the tight hold of Bridget, who, with many asseverations that “out of her arms she would not let the prisoner go till morning,” led him back to the cave.