spear and waded back till he could toss them to
the far bank, and so turned to my help.

By that time I had taken up Hilda as best I might, holding her
high, bidding her fear not, and clutch me as little as possible.
She said nothing, being very brave, but nearly choked me once when
the water struck cold as it reached her.

The rising flood water swirled and beat on me as I went deeper and
deeper, and glad enough I was when Erling came to my side upstream
and helped to steady me. Once we stopped and swayed against the
rush for a long moment, half helpless; but we won, and struggled
on. Then a back eddy took the pressure from us, and we went more
quickly and steadily, and so found the shallows, and at last the
bank.

Thankful enough I was, for it had nearly been a matter of swimming
at one time; and if that had happened, I hardly care to think how
we should have fared.

I set Hilda down and gasped. She was not light when we started, but
with each step from the deeps to the shallows she had grown heavier
with the dragging weight of wet skirts; and that had puzzled me in
a foolish way, so that I thought that the weeds were holding her
down. Now we three stood and dripped, and were fain to laugh at one
another; while the men we had escaped from were talking loudly at
the far end of the cover, where they had met.

"That will not last long," I said; "they will be back at the
water's edge in a minute."

Thereat we took to the bushes, which were thick here, in a little
patch. Beyond them was a clear space of turf a hundred yards wide,
which we must cross to reach more wooded land, where we might go as
we pleased back to the ruin where the horses waited. Hilda went
slowly, for the wet garments clogged her, and were heavy still.

We must bide here till the men went away, or till it grew darker;
for there was no need--though they would hardly follow us--to let
them know who was with their quarry, or that she was anywhere but
on their side of the water. We might find our way to Fernlea cut
off. We took Hilda into the thicket, and crept back to see what
happened, leaving the dry cloaks with her.

The loud voices had stopped suddenly, and we knew that it meant
that the men were coming back through the wood, beating it
cautiously. We lay flat under the nut bushes and alders, watching,
and the edge of the cover was not more than an arrow flight from
us.

Presently there was a rustle in it, and a man looked out, but we
co