lowing towards him
the sound came louder and fuller. Again she cried, and then stood
motionless with her hands above her head. It was only for an instant,
for the next he saw she had turned and was racing down the slope,
jumping the little scrogs of hazel like a deer. On the ridge appeared
faces, and then over it swept a mob of men.

She had a start of some fifty yards, and laboured to increase it,
having doubtless the verandah wall in mind. Sir Archie, sick with
anxiety, nevertheless spared time to admire her prowess. "Gad! she's a
miler," he ejaculated. "She'll do it. I'm hanged if she don't do it."

Against men in seamen's boots and heavy clothing she had a clear
advantage. But two shook themselves loose from the pack and began to
gain on her. At the main shrubbery they were not thirty yards behind,
and in her passage through it her skirts must have delayed her, for
when she emerged the pursuit had halved the distance. He got the
sights of the rifle on the first man, but the lawns sloped up towards
the house, and to his consternation he found that the girl was in the
line of fire. Madly he ran to the other window of the room, tore back
the shutters, shivered the glass, and flung his rifle to his shoulder.
The fellow was within three yards of her, but, thank God! he had now a
clear field. He fired low and just ahead of him, and had the
satisfaction to see him drop like a rabbit, shot in the leg. His
companion stumbled over him, and for a moment the girl was safe.

But her speed was failing. She passed out of sight on the verandah
side of the house, and the rest of the pack had gained ominously over
the easier ground of the lawn. He thought for a moment of trying to
stop them by his fire, but realized that if every shot told there would
still be enough of them left to make sure of her capture. The only
chance was at the verandah, and he went downstairs at a pace undreamed
of since the days when he had two whole legs.

McGuffog, Mannlicher in hand, was poking his neck over the wall. The
pursuit had turned the corner and were about twenty yards off; the girl
was at the foot of the ladder, breathless, drooping with fatigue. She
tried to climb, limply and feebly, and very slowly, as if she were too
giddy to see clear. Above were two cripples, and at her back the van
of the now triumphant pack.

Sir Archie, game leg or no, was on the parapet preparing to drop down
and hold off the pursuit were it only for s