“Six. Four beside the two you captured.”
“How far from here were you when you escaped?” I noticed that she no longer resented my questions as on the previous night.
“I don’t know. It was about noon, and they called a halt; and having fed and drunk they lay down and slept, leaving one to watch. But he fell asleep, too, with the heat, and I stole off. I rode fast for some hours, and then was going slowly, thinking I was safe from pursuit, when suddenly the two appeared in the distance and chased me. I let my horse go where it would, and it carried me here.”
“You had been riding about seven hours or so, then. That means fourteen at least, without the delay of the storm; and then he’d have to chance finding them.”
“Whom do you mean by ‘he’?”
I had been calculating roughly how long it would take the man Karasch had set free to reach his friends and return with them, and unwittingly had spoken the thought aloud. I pretended not to hear her question.
“You don’t know whether all the men rode after you on the same road, or spread out in different directions?” I asked.
She made no reply, and when I glanced up I met her eyes bent earnestly upon me.
“You are concealing something from me. You heard my question, I know, for I saw you start.”
With the curious feeling that I was at a disadvantage sitting down below her, I stood up.