the past
eight-and-forty hours.

"I suppose, gentlemen," I said, "that, in any case, surrender is out of
the question."

"I decline," cried Brunow, "to be the victim of your folly. If you had
taken the road we should have been out of danger long ago. You choose
to be caught like a rat in a trap, and I wash my hands of the whole
business. I shall walk back to the inn."

He was already in the act of dismounting, when Hinge spoke.

"I wonder," he said, very dryly, "what them Austrians will think of the
gentleman as brought the letter from the general?"

Brunow settled back in his saddle with a muffled exclamation, and spoke
no more.

"Gentlemen," said the count, "if there is any possible way of escape
without me I beseech you to take it."

Nobody answered. We sat for a long time in silence, and the river roared
by. We strained our ears to listen, but not a sound reached us from the
direction of the fortress. The night, late so stormy, was quite light
and quiet. An intense silence reigned on the hills, and not a sound was
heard but the noise of the tumbling, hurrying water near at hand.

When I had gone to look at the ford I had taken keen note of everything,
for to have mistaken the spot might have been fatal to us, even if no
pursuit had been started. I had noticed a rock which stood in mid-stream
about a score of yards above the ford, rising some four feet above the
level of the stream. When we had reached the water-side this rock had
been invisible, and I could only guess how deeply it was covered. I
noticed on a sudden that its forehead was bare once more, and I stared
at it with my heart in my eyes until I was persuaded that it was growing
above water every instant. The river ran in this spot in a perfect
torrent, with an incline, I should say, of nearly three feet in a
hundred. The stream bore off the rainfall of a whole net-work of hills,
but at the pace at which it ran it could not take long before it
would become passable at some risk. I said nothing as yet, but the
conversation I had held with Lieutenant Breschia on the morning of
our first meeting filled my mind with hope. The torrent seemed no less
noisy, but measuring it by the projecting arms of the rock I could see
that it was falling with a greater rapidity than I had dared to hope
for. Within ten minutes it had dropped six iuches, but for the next ten
minutes it hung stationary; and sometimes to my fancy seemed to gain.
The thousand mountain ril