CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE MAINS.
They reached at length the valley road.

The water that ran in the bottom was the Lorrie.

Three days ago it was a lively little stream, winding and changing within its grassy banks--here resting silent in a deep pool, there running and singing over its pebbles.
Now it had filled and far overflowed its banks, and was a swift river.

It had not yet, so far up the valley, encroached on the road; but the torrents on the mountain had already in places much injured it, and with considerable difficulty they crossed some of the new-made gullies.

When they approached the bridge, however, by which they must cross the Lorrie to reach the Mains, their worst trouble lay before them.