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bushes she spoke a low word in his backlaid ears, raised
him quickly with the bit, leaning forward as he rose in air.
Like a bird that animal took the bushes and the gully be-
yond, while close behind him crashed the two luckless
troopers.
Emma von der Tann cast a single backward glance over
her shoulder, as her horse regained his stride upon the op-
posite side of the gully, to see her two foremost pursuers
plunging headlong into it. Then she shook free her reins
and gave her mount his head along a narrow trail that both
had followed many times before.
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Behind her, Maenck and the balance of his men came to a
sudden stop at the edge of the gully. Below them one of the
troopers was struggling to his feet. The other lay very still
beneath his motionless horse. With an angry oath Maenck
directed one of his men to remain and help the two who
had plunged over the brink, then with the others he rode
along the gully searching for a crossing.
Before they found one their captive was a mile ahead of
them, and, barring accident, quite beyond recapture. She
was making for a highway that would lead her to Lustadt.
Ordinarily she had been wont to bear a little to the north-
east at this point and strike back into the road that she had
just left; but today she feared to do so lest she be cut off
before she gained the north and south highroad which the
other road crossed a little farther on.
To her right was a small farm across which she had never
ridden, for she always had made it a point never to trespass
upon fenced grounds. On the opposite side of the farm was
a wood, and somewhere beyond that a small stream which
the highroad crossed upon a little bridge. It was all new
country to her, but it must be ventured.
She took the fence at the edge of the clearing and then
reined in a moment to look behind her. A mile away she
saw the head and shoulders of a horseman above some low
bushes--the pursuers had found a way through the gully.
Turning once more to her flight the girl rode rapidly
across the fields toward the wood. Here she found a high
wire fence so close to thickly growing trees upon the opposite
side that she dared not attempt to jump it--there was no
point at which she would not have been raked from the
saddle by overhanging boughs. Slipping to the ground she
attacked the barrier with her bare hands, attempting to
tear away the staples that held the wire in place. For several
minutes she surged and tugged upon the unyielding metal
strand. An occasional backward glance revealed to her hor-
rified eyes the rapid approach of her enemies. One of them
was far in advance of the others--in another moment he
would be upon her.
With redoubled fury she turned again to the fence. A
superhuman effort brought away a staple. One wire was
down and an instant later two more. Standing with one foot
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upon the wires to keep them from tangling about her
horse's legs, she pulled her mount across into the wood. The
foremost horseman was close upon her as she finally suc-
ceeded in urging the animal across the fallen wires.
The girl sprang to her horse's side just as the man reached
the fence. The wires, released from her weight, sprang up
breast high against his horse. He leaped from the saddle
the instant that the girl was swinging into her own. Then
the fellow jumped the fence and caught her bridle.
She struck at him with her whip, lashing him across the
head and face, but he clung tightly, dragged hither and
thither by the frightened horse, until at last he managed to
reach the girl's arm and drag her to the ground.
Almost at the same instant a man, unkempt and dis-
heveled, sprang from behind a tree and with a single blow
stretched the trooper unconscious upon the ground.
VII
BARNEY TO THE RESCUE
AS BARNEY CUSTER raced along the Austrian highroad to-
ward the frontier and Lutha, his spirits rose to a pitch of
buoyancy to which they had been strangers for the past
several days. For the first time in many hours it seemed
possible to Barney to entertain reasonable hopes of escape
from the extremely dangerous predicament into which he
had gotten himself.
He was even humming a gay little tune as he drove into
a tiny hamlet through which the road wound. No sign of
military appeared to fill him with apprehension. He was
very hungry and the odor of cooking fell gratefully upon his
nostrils. He drew up before the single inn, and presently,
washed and brushed, was sitting before the first meal he
had seen for two days. In the enjoyment of the food he
almost forgot the dangers he had passed through, or that
other dangers might be lying in wait for him at his elbow.
From the landlord he learned that the frontier lay but
three miles to the south of the hamlet. Three miles! Three
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miles to Lutha! What if there was a price upon his head in
that kingdom? It was HER home. It had been his mother's
birthplace. He loved it.
Further, he must enter there and reach the ear of old
Prince von der Tann. Once more he must save the king who
had shown such scant gratitude upon another occasion.
For Leopold, Barney Custer did not give the snap of his
fingers; but what Leopold, the king, stood for in the lives
and sentiments of the Luthanians--of the Von der Tanns--
was very dear to the American because it was dear to a
trim, young girl and to a rugged, leonine, old man, of both
of whom Barney was inordinately fond. And possibly, too, it
was dear to him because of the royal blood his mother
had bequeathed him.
His meal disposed of to the last morsel, and paid for,
Barney entered the stolen car and resumed his journey
toward Lutha. That he could remain there he knew to be
impossible, but in delivering his news to Prince Ludwig he
might have an opportunity to see the Princess Emma once
again--it would be worth risking his life for, of that he was
perfectly satisfied. And then he could go across into Serbia
with the new credentials that he had no doubt Prince von
der Tann would furnish him for the asking to replace those
the Austrians had confiscated.
At the frontier Barney was halted by an Austrian customs
officer; but when the latter recognized the military car and
the Austrian uniform of the driver he waved him through
without comment. Upon the other side the American ex-
pected possible difficulty with the Luthanian customs offi-
cer, but to his surprise he found the little building deserted,
and none to bar his way. At last he was in Lutha--by noon
on the following day he should be at Tann.
To reach the Old Forest by the best roads it was neces-
sary to bear a little to the southeast, passing through Tafel-
berg and striking the north and south highway between that
point and Lustadt, to which he could hold until reaching
the east and west road that runs through both Tann and
Blentz on its way across the kingdom.
The temptation to stop for a few minutes in Tafelberg for
a visit with his old friend Herr Kramer was strong, but fear
that he might be recognized by others, who would not
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guard his secret so well as the shopkeeper of Tafelberg
would, decided him to keep on his way. So he flew through
the familiar main street of the quaint old village at a speed
that was little, if any less, than fifty miles an hour.
On he raced toward the south, his speed often necessarily
diminished upon the winding mountain roads, but for the
most part clinging to a reckless mileage that caused the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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