"Why, you are ready to drop! Can't you go a step farther? Let's stop
here and face 'em. I'll bluff 'em out and we'll get to Bracken's some
way. But I _won't_ give up the game! Not for a million!"

"Then we can't stop. You forget I go in for gymnasium work. I'm as
strong as anything, only I'm--I'm a bit nervous. Oh, I knew something
would go wrong!" she wailed. They were now standing like trapped deer in
a little thicket, listening for sounds of the hounds.

"Are you sorry, dear?"

"No, no! I love you, Jack, and I'll go through everything with you and
for you. Really," she cried with a fine show of enthusiasm, "this is
jolly good fun, isn't it? Being chased like regular bandits--"

"Sh! Drop down, dear! There's somebody passing above us--hear him?"

They crawled into a maze of hazel bushes with much less dignity than
haste. Two men sped by an instant later, panting and growling.

"Safe for a minute or two at least," he whispered as the crunching
footsteps were lost to the ear. "They won't come back this way, dear."

"They had guns, Jack!" she whispered, terrified.

"I don't understand it, hanged if I do," he said, pulling his brows into
a mighty scowl. "They are after us like a pack of hounds. It must mean
something. Lord, but we seem to have stirred up a hornet's nest!"

"Oh, dear, I wish we were safely at--" she paused.