"The cowards!" muttered Barney as the enemy's shot an-nounced 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. Ishould 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 Lustadt, 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 passed 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 re-spectable 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 assailed 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 pass. 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 over-heard 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 Lustadt 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 passed 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. What-ever 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 passed 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 glass 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 glass 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.
