"You are not our prisoner," said Colin; "you and your friends are our guests, welcome to stay or go as you will.

Only we hope and desire that you will not go forth into the forest again until the snow has melted, and you are sound and whole once more." The bright-faced boy was seated beside the bed whereon lay Fritz, who felt like a man awakening from a long, strange, and rather frightful dream.

He had become unconscious almost immediately after their rescue three days before, and had only now recovered the use of his faculties and the memory of recent events.
"You had a bad wound on the side of your head when we found you," explained Colin.

"My uncle, the Abbe, says that had it been left much longer untended you must have died.

He is an excellent surgeon himself, having learned much as to the treatment of wounds and bruises and sicknesses of all kinds.