Page:William Le Queux - The Czar's Spy.djvu/255

 CHAPTER XXIV

LOVE IN A LONELY LAND

"QUICK, Excellency! Fly! while there is yet time!" gasped the Finn, grasping my hand and half dragging me from the boat, while I, in turn, placed Elma upon the bank.

"Hoida! This way! Swiftly!" cried our guide, and the three of us, heedless of the consequences, plunged forward into the impenetrable darkness, just as our fierce pursuers came alongside where we had only a moment ago been seated.

They shouted ..my as they sprang to land after us, but our guide, who had been bred and born in those forests, knew well how to travel in a semi- circle, and how to conceal himself.

It was a race for freedom — nay, for very life.

So dark that we could see before us hardly a foot, we were compelled to place our hands in front of us to avoid collision with the big tree trunks, while ever and anon we found ourselves entangled in the mass of dead creepers and vegetable parasites that formed the dense undergrowth. Around us on every side we heard the shouts and curses of our pursuers, while above the rest we heard an