"Have you heard anything?" I asked him anxiously.
"I thought I heard a yell over here through the woods. We had better
get out of here."
"Don't wait a second," said the man. "The south road comes over this
other way. If you've heard anybody there, they will be here in five
minutes. I'll follow you on a horse."
With an injunction to haste, I stepped after Mrs. Knapp into the
carriage, the door was shut, Dicky mounted the seat, and we rolled down
the road on the return journey.
"Oh, how thankful I am!" cried Mrs. Knapp. "There is a weight of
anxiety off my mind. Can you imagine what I have been fearing in the
last month?"
"I had thought a little about that myself," I confessed. "But we are
not yet out of the woods, I am afraid."
"Hark! what's that?" said Mrs. Knapp apprehensively.
The carriage was now making its way through the bad stretch in the
lane, and there was little noise in its progress.
"I heard nothing," I said, putting down the window to listen. "What was
it?"
"I thought it was a shout."
There was no noise but the steady splash of horses' hoofs in the mud,
and the sloppy, shearing sound of the wheels as they cut through the
wet soil.
As we bumped and groaned again through the ruts, however, there arose
in the distance behind us the fierce barking of dogs, their voices
raised in anger and alarm.
There was a faint halloo, and a wilder barking followed. Then my ear
caught the splashing of galloping hoofs behind, and in a moment the man
of the house rode beside us.
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