"Nonsense," came the reply from farther back in the wood. "If there is a man with her and he will not surrender, shoot him." At the words Barney and the girl turned once more to their flight. From behind came the command to halt--"Halt! or I fire." Just ahead Barney saw the river.
They were sure to be taken there if he was unable to gain the time necessary to make good a crossing. Upon the opposite side was a continuation of the wood. Behind them the leading trooper was crashing through the underbrush in renewed pursuit. He came in sight of them again, just as they reached the river bank. Once more his carbine was leveled. Barney pushed the girl to her knees behind a bush. Then he wheeled and fired, so quickly that the man with the already leveled gun had no time to antic.i.p.ate his act.
With a cry the fellow threw his hands above his head, staggered forward and plunged full length upon his face. Barney gathered the princess in his arms and plunged into the shallow stream. The girl held his carbine as he stumbled over the rocky bottom. The water deepened rapidly--the opposite sh.o.r.e seemed a long way off and behind there were three more enemies in hot pursuit.
Under ordinary circ.u.mstances Barney could have found it in his heart to wish the little Luthanian river as broad as the Mississippi, for only under such circ.u.mstances as these could he ever hope to hold the Princess Emma in his arms. Two years before she had told him that she loved him; but at the same time she had given him to understand that their love was hopeless. She might refuse to wed the king; but that she should ever wed another while the king lived was impossible, unless Leopold saw fit to release her from her betrothal to him and sanction her marriage to another. That he ever would do this was to those who knew him not even remotely possible.
He loved Emma von der Tann and he hated Barney Custer--hated him with a jealous hatred that was almost fanatic in its intensity. And even that the Princess Emma von der Tann would wed him were she free to wed was a question that was not at all clear in the mind of Barney Custer. He knew something of the traditions of this n.o.ble family--of the pride of caste, of the fetish of blood that inexorably dictated the ordering of their lives.
The girl had just said that the honor of her house was more precious than the life of any of its members. How much more precious would it be to her than her own material happiness! Barney Custer sighed and struggled through the swirling waters that were now above his hips.
If he pressed the lithe form closer to him than necessity demanded, who may blame him?
The girl, whose face was toward the bank they had just quitted, gave no evidence of displeasure if she noted the fierce pressure of his muscles. Her eyes were riveted upon the wood behind. Presently a man emerged. He called to them in a loud and threatening tone.
Barney redoubled his Herculean efforts to gain the opposite bank.
He was in midstream now and the water had risen to his waist. The girl saw Maenck and the other trooper emerge from the underbrush beside the first. Maenck was crazed with anger. He shook his fist and screamed aloud his threatening commands to halt, and then, of a sudden, gave an order to one of the men at his side. Immediately the fellow raised his carbine and fired at the escaping couple.
The bullet struck the water behind them. At the sound of the report the girl raised the gun she held and leveled it at the group behind her. She pulled the trigger. There was a sharp report, and one of the troopers fell. Then she fired again, quickly, and again and again. She did not score another hit, but she had the satisfaction of seeing Maenck and the last of his troopers dodge back to the safety of protecting trees.
"The cowards!" muttered Barney as the enemy"s shot announced his sinister intention; "they might have hit your highness."
The girl did not reply until she had ceased firing.
"Captain Maenck is notoriously a coward," she said. "He is hiding behind a tree now with one of his men--I hit the other."
"You hit one of them!" exclaimed Barney enthusiastically.
"Yes," said the girl. "I have shot a man. I often wondered what the sensation must be to have done such a thing. I should feel terribly, but I don"t. They were firing at you, trying to shoot you in the back while you were defenseless. I am not sorry--I cannot be; but I only wish that it had been Captain Maenck."
In a short time Barney reached the bank and, helping the girl up, climbed to her side. A couple of shots followed them as they left the river, but did not fall dangerously near. Barney took the carbine and replied, then both of them disappeared into the wood.
For the balance of the day they tramped on in the direction of l.u.s.tadt, making but little progress owing to the fear of apprehension. They did not dare utilize the high road, for they were still too close to Blentz. Their only hope lay in reaching the protection of Prince von der Tann before they should be recaptured by the king"s emissaries. At dusk they came to the outskirts of a town. Here they hid until darkness settled, for Barney had determined to enter the place after dark and hire horses.
The American marveled at the bravery and endurance of the girl. He had always supposed that a princess was so carefully guarded from fatigue and privation all her life that the least exertion would prove her undoing; but no hardy peasant girl could have endured more bravely the hardships and dangers through which the Princess Emma had pa.s.sed since the sun rose that morning.
At last darkness came, and with it they approached and entered the village. They kept to unlighted side streets until they met a villager, of whom they inquired their way to some private house where they might obtain refreshments. The fellow scrutinized them with evident suspicion.
"There is an inn yonder," he said, pointing toward the main street.
"You can obtain food there. Why should respectable folk want to go elsewhere than to the public inn? And if you are afraid to go there you must have very good reasons for not wanting to be seen, and--"
he stopped short as though a.s.sailed by an idea. "Wait," he cried, excitedly, "I will go and see if I can find a place for you. Wait right here," and off he ran toward the inn.
"I don"t like the looks of that," said Barney, after the man had left them. "He"s gone to report us to someone. Come, we"d better get out of here before he comes back."
The two turned up a side street away from the inn. They had gone but a short distance when they heard the sound of voices and the thud of horses" feet behind them. The horses were coming at a walk and with them were several men on foot. Barney took the princess"
hand and drew her up a hedge bordered driveway that led into private grounds. In the shadows of the hedge they waited for the party behind them to pa.s.s. It might be no one searching for them, but it was just as well to be on the safe side--they were still near Blentz. Before the men reached their hiding place a motor car followed and caught up with them, and as the party came opposite the driveway Barney and the princess overheard a portion of their conversation.
"Some of you go back and search the street behind the inn--they may not have come this way." The speaker was in the motor car. "We will follow along this road for a bit and then turn into the l.u.s.tadt highway. If you don"t find them go back along the road toward Tann."
In her excitement the Princess Emma had not noticed that Barney Custer still held her hand in his. Now he pressed it. "It is Maenck"s voice," he whispered. "Every road will be guarded."
For a moment he was silent, thinking. The searching party had pa.s.sed on. They could still hear the purring of the motor as Maenck"s car moved slowly up the street.
"This is a driveway," murmured Barney. "People who build driveways into their grounds usually have something to drive. Whatever it is it should be at the other end of the driveway. Let"s see if it will carry two."
Still in the shadow of the hedge they moved cautiously toward the upper end of the private road until presently they saw a building looming in their path.
"A garage?" whispered Barney.
"Or a barn," suggested the princess.
"In either event it should contain something that can go," returned the American. "Let us hope that it can go like--like--ah--the wind."
"And carry two," supplemented the princess.
"Wait here," said Barney. "If I get caught, run. Whatever happens you mustn"t be caught."
Princess Emma dropped back close to the hedge and Barney approached the building, which proved to be a private garage. The doors were locked, as also were the three windows. Barney pa.s.sed entirely around the structure halting at last upon the darkest side. Here was a window. Barney tried to loosen the catch with the blade of his pocket knife, but it wouldn"t unfasten. His endeavors resulted only in snapping short the blade of his knife. For a moment he stood contemplating the baffling window. He dared not break the gla.s.s for fear of arousing the inmates of the house which, though he could not see it, might be close at hand.
Presently he recalled a scene he had witnessed on State Street in Chicago several years before--a crowd standing before the window of a jeweler"s shop inspecting a neat little hole that a thief had cut in the gla.s.s with a diamond and through which he had inserted his hand and brought forth several hundred dollars worth of loot. But Barney Custer wore no diamond--he would as soon have worn a celluloid collar. But women wore diamonds. Doubtless the Princess Emma had one. He ran quickly to her side.
"Have you a diamond ring?" he whispered.
"Gracious!" she exclaimed, "you are progressing rapidly," and slipped a solitaire from her finger to his hand.
"Thanks," said Barney. "I need the practice; but wait and you"ll see that a diamond may be infinitely more valuable than even the broker claims," and he was gone again into the shadows of the garage. Here upon the window pane he scratched a rough deep circle, close to the catch. A quick blow sent the gla.s.s clattering to the floor within. For a minute Barney stood listening for any sign that the noise had attracted attention, but hearing nothing he ran his hand through the hole that he had made and unlatched the frame. A moment later he had crawled within.
Before him, in the darkness, stood a roadster. He ran his hand over the pedals and levers, breathing a sigh of relief as his touch revealed the familiar control of a standard make. Then he went to the double doors. They opened easily and silently.
Once outside he hastened to the side of the waiting girl.
"It"s a machine," he whispered. "We must both be in it when it leaves the garage--it"s the through express for l.u.s.tadt and makes no stops for pa.s.sengers or freight."
He led her back to the garage and helped her into the seat beside him. As silently as possible he ran the machine into the driveway. A hundred yards to the left, half hidden by intervening trees and shrubbery, rose the dark bulk of a house. A subdued light shone through the drawn blinds of several windows--the only sign of life about the premises until the car had cleared the garage and was moving slowly down the driveway. Then a door opened in the house letting out a flood of light in which the figure of a man was silhouetted. A voice broke the silence.
"Who are you? What are you doing there? Come back!"
The man in the doorway called excitedly, "Friedrich! Come! Come quickly! Someone is stealing the automobile," and the speaker came running toward the driveway at top speed. Behind him came Friedrich.
Both were shouting, waving their arms and threatening. Their combined din might have aroused the dead.
Barney sought speed--silence now was useless. He turned to the left into the street away from the center of the town. In this direction had gone the automobile with Maenck, but by taking the first righthand turn Barney hoped to elude the captain. In a moment Friedrich and the other were hopelessly distanced. It was with a sigh of relief that the American turned the car into the dark shadows beneath the overarching trees of the first cross street.
He was running without lights along an unknown way; and beside him was the most precious burden that Barney Custer might ever expect to carry. Under these circ.u.mstances his speed was greatly reduced from what he would have wished, but at that he was forced to accept grave risks. The road might end abruptly at the brink of a ravine--it might swerve perilously close to a stone quarry--or plunge headlong into a pond or river. Barney shuddered at the possibilities; but nothing of the sort happened. The street ran straight out of the town into a country road, rather heavy with sand. In the open the possibilities of speed were increased, for the night, though moonless, was clear, and the road visible for some distance ahead.
The fugitives were congratulating themselves upon the excellent chance they now had to reach l.u.s.tadt. There was only Maenck and his companion ahead of them in the other car, and as there were several roads by which one might reach the main highway the chances were fair that Prince Peter"s aide would miss them completely.
Already escape seemed a.s.sured when the pounding of horses" hoofs upon the roadway behind them arose to blast their new found hope.
Barney increased the speed of the car. It leaped ahead in response to his foot; but the road was heavy, and the sides of the ruts gripping the tires r.e.t.a.r.ded the speed. For a mile they held the lead of the galloping hors.e.m.e.n. The shouts of their pursuers fell clearly upon their ears, and the Princess Emma, turning in her seat, could easily see the four who followed. At last the car began to draw away--the distance between it and the riders grew gradually greater.
"I believe we are going to make it," whispered the girl, her voice tense with excitement. "If you could only go a little faster, Mr.