s it may sound, for I know a man who did that very trick in
somewhat similar circumstances; but her earnestness combined with the
childlike guile on her face was comic.

"It would be too long a job to paint the car before we could be
spotted," I said. "I think we must just hope for the best, and show a
bold face. I shouldn't be surprised if we'd get through all right
somehow. Perhaps, if there was much money in your aunt's purse, miss,
the peasants would prefer keeping their mouths shut and sticking to that
than mixing themselves up with the police and perhaps losing what they
might have had, like the dog with his meat in the fable."

"There were about a hundred francs in my purse," announced Aunt Mary.

"If they do catch us, what then?" the girl asked.

I explained the state of the case as I had argued it out to myself.

"Oh, well," sighed Miss Randolph, "I suppose we can't do better than
take your advice, but this isn't a nice adventure. I do hate feeling
guilty--like an escaping criminal, with every hand against me. And I
_loathe_ suspense; I always want to know the worst. When shall we be
sure what the peasants have made up their minds to do?"

"Well," I said, "in less than an hour, if all goes well, we ought to be
at the _octroi_ station outside Carcassonne, and if we are 'wanted' by
the police we shall know it fast enough, because they will--er--try to
stop us there."

"Then I hope all _won't_ go well," moaned Miss Randolph. She who had
been so brave when forty peasants threatened us with words, stones, and
even knives, was crushed under the vague menace of the law. "If only we
could arrive after dark we might flash through before the _octroi_
people knew. _Let's_ arrive after dark," she exclaimed eagerly. "It's
getting on towards four now. Let's stop--since we've been perfectly
certain for ages that no one was attempting to follow us--and--and
deliberately have tea by the roadside. If we do that we can easily pass
the time, so as not to arrive at the _octroi_ until half-past five, when
it will be dark. It's moonlight, but the moon doesn't rise now till six
or after."

"We could do that certainly" I said, "and we might get through without
being nabbed. If we succeed, we might rush on through Carcassonne,
instead of stopping there to-night; for the farther away we get and the
more towns we can say we've passed through without being detained, the
better for our chances of ultimate escape."

"But I don't wa