coming in; turn them back and tell them to bide their time."

"But you?" I would say.

"My place is inside of that soldier-cordon our friend is drawing about
his dove-cote. I shall be at hand when she needs me, as I promised."

"Aye, so you may be; but not alone," said I; and with that we fell to
running like a pair of doubling foxes through the wood on the steep
slope behind the lodge, striving with might and main to gain the laurel
thicket whence we had made our first reconnaissance before the
converging lines of the redcoat cordon should close and shut us out.

We did it by the skin of our teeth, diving to cover through the closing
gap not a second too soon. When we were in and hugging the bare ground
under the scanty leafing of the laurel, I take no shame in saying that I
would have given a king's ransom to be at large again. Had there been
but one of us the covert would have been cramped enough; and I was
painfully conscious that my borrowed coat of scarlet was but a poor
thing to hide in.

To make it worse, Falconnet, who had lagged behind at the fire, was now
heaping fresh fuel on, and this reviving of the blaze made the place as
light as day. With the nearest links in the redcoat chain no more than a
pike's-length at our backs, we dared not stir or breathe a word; and,
all in all, we might have been taken like rats in a trap had any one of
the sentries on our side of the circle chanced to look behind him.

Having repaired the fire to his liking, the troop-captain came up to
pass a word or two with his lieutenant. They spoke guardedly, but we
could hear--could not help hearing.

"You have seen nothing, Gordon?"

"Nothing, as yet."

"Make the round again and tell the men 'twill be ten gold joes and a
double allowance of liquor to the man who first claps eyes on any one of
the four."

The subaltern went to carry out the order, and Falconnet fell to pacing
back and forth before the little wigwam. I could see his face at the
turn where the firelight fell upon him; 'twas the face of a villain at
his worst, namely, a villain half in liquor. There was a lurking devil
of passion peering out of the sensuous eyes; and ever and anon he
stopped as if to listen for some sound within the captives' lodge.

When the lieutenant returned to make his report, he was given another
order to cap the first.

"Your line is too close-drawn and too conspicuous," said the captain,
shortly. "Move the men out fifty paces in adv