gained the rustic bridge when
the clanging notes of a deep-tongued bell broke out behind them.

"The old vixen has soon come to her senses. Let us hope the village is
not too near, for it will take us ten minutes at this rate," said Laval,
squeezing the arm that supported him as his companion looked back.

He had heard it at the same moment--a hoarse shout from many voices and
the trample of hoofs at the hunting-lodge.

"By Jingo! Cavalry!" said the lad.

"You must leave me and run for it. Good luck, old fellow!" exclaimed
Claude Laval. But Dennis gave an odd smile and stooped down.

"Put your arm round my neck!" he cried. "I'm not going without you, so
argument is useless and will only waste time. It will give you a bit of
a twisting, I know. Now, stick tight!" And he started to run with the
wounded man on his shoulders.

Several times he nearly stumbled, for the ground was sandy, but he had
accomplished two-thirds of the distance when the alarm bell stopped, and
there was a chorus of savage shouts from the house they had left.

"Hold on like grim death!" panted Dennis. "We'll do it yet!" And
bracing himself for the last few yards, he doubled the pace and reached
the shadow of the aeroplane as the leading files of a troop of Uhlans
thundered across the bridge.

A stifled cry broke from Laval's lips, though he tried hard to repress
it, as Dennis dragged him up by main force and tumbled him into the
observer's cockpit.

"I know I've given the poor chap beans," he muttered to himself, as he
handed him the captured tricolour. And, jumping down into the pilot's
seat, he started the engines going for the second time that morning.

The officer at the head of the yelling horsemen was not thirty lengths
away when the Aviatik began to move; and, roaring out an order to his
men to draw their carbines, he emptied his own revolver at random.

Afterwards, when Dennis came to think calmly of that moment, he grew
cold and shivered; but at the time itself his heart had given a mighty
throb as the rubber-tyred wheels of the chassis left the ground, and
they started on their long flight for home.

He knew perfectly well, as several bullets pierced the lifting planes
and one starred on the stay he had tightened, that their troubles had by
no means ceased when they left the Uhlans behind them. By that time keen
eyes would be watching, not only the earth, but the sky, and he had only
his wits to guide him.

There was the sun