Page:William Le Queux - The Czar's Spy.djvu/259

Rh fired from straight before us, and that revealed the truth. We were actually between the two parties, and they were closing in upon us!

They had already driven us to the edge of the bog.

The Finlander recogignized our peril as quickly as I did, and halted.

"Let us turn straight back," he urged breathlessly. "We may yet elude them."

And then we again turned off at right angles travelling as quickly as we were able back towards the lake-shore.

It was an exciting chase in the darkness, for we knew not whither we were going, nor into what pitfall of ravine or of treacherous marsh we might fall. Once we saw afar through the trees the light of a lantern held by a guard, and already the sweet-faced girl beside me seemed tired and terribly fatigued. But we hurried on and on, striving to make no noise, and yet the crackling of wood beneath our feet seemed to us to sound like the noise of thunder.

At last, breathless, we halted to listen. We were already in sight of the grey mist where lay the silent lake that held so many secrets.

There was not a sound. The guards had gone straight on, believing they had driven us into that deadly bog wherein, if we had entered, we must have been slowly sucked down and engulfed. They were surrounding it, no doubt, feeling certain of their prey.

But we crept along the water's edge, until, in the