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Updated: June 29, 2025
Hussin gave an odd sort of cry, like a demented owl, and something began to stir below us. It was a big covered wagon, full of bundles of forage, and drawn by four mules. As we descended from the shed into the frozen litter of the yard, a man came out of the shade and spoke low to Hussin.
My sorrow, that I should have led my lords so ill. Back over that moor we went with my spirits badly damped. We had none too long a start, and Hilda von Einem would rouse heaven and earth to catch us up. Hussin was forcing the pace, for his anxiety was as great as mine. Before we reached the road the mist blew back and revealed a wedge of country right across to the hills beyond the river.
'You will be safe here, but you must keep still till the Master comes. 'Is the Frankish lady here? I asked. Hussin nodded, and from a wallet brought out some food raisins and cold meat and a loaf of bread. We fell on it like vultures, and as we ate Hussin disappeared. I noticed that he locked the door behind him. As soon as the meal was ended the others returned to their interrupted sleep.
He could only hope that he would strike someone with a smattering of English or German. Twice he ascended to the roof and came back cheerful, for there was promise of wild weather. Hussin brought in our supper, and Peter made up a parcel of food. Blenkiron and I had both small flasks of brandy and I gave him mine. Then he held out his hand quite simply, like a good child who is going off to bed.
There were long banks of broken screes, I remember, where the snow slipped in wreaths from under our feet. Great boulders had to be circumvented, and patches of bog, where the streams from the snows first made contact with the plains, mired us to our girths. Happily the mist was down again, but this, though it hindered the chase, lessened the chances of Hussin finding the path.
And that blessed chance depended very much on old Peter, now brooding like a pigeon on the house-tops. It was not till the late afternoon that Hussin appeared again. He took no notice of Peter's absence, but lit a lantern and set it on the table. Then he went to the door and waited. Presently a light step fell on the stairs, and Hussin drew back to let someone enter.
The second day, when I tried the trap, I found it closed and heavily weighted. This must have been done by our friends, and very right, too. If the house were becoming a place of public resort, it would never do for me to be journeying roof-ward. Late on the second night Hussin reappeared.
'Not to be friends with him, I said, 'but to bust him and all his kind. 'Then I'm ready, said Peter cheerfully. 'What is it? I spread out the maps on the divan. There was no light in the place but Blenkiron's electric torch, for Hussin had put out the lantern. Peter got his nose into the things at once, for his intelligence work in the Boer War had made him handy with maps.
'That's only the overture, he cried. 'The opera will soon begin. We must put a breastwork up in these gaps or they'll pick us off from a thousand yards. I had meantime roughly dressed Blenkiron's wound with a linen rag which Hussin provided. It was from a ricochet bullet which had chipped into his left shin.
Hussin and Peter scoured the country for horses, Blenkiron sat in the barn and played Patience, while I haunted the roadside near the bridge in the hope of picking up some kind of conveyance. My task was perfectly futile. The columns passed, casting wondering eyes on the wrecked car among the frozen rushes, but they could offer no help.
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