It was a good while before Alec looked at his watch; then he sprang to his feet. “Elizabeth, you’ve got exactly one hour and a half in which to make a two hour and a half walk, and get into your company duds.”
Blue Bonnet stared up at him, too astonished to move. “Alec, it isn’t four o’clock!”
“Three minutes after—now!”
“And they don’t even know where I am!” Blue Bonnet gasped.
“We’ll have to do some pretty tall sprinting,” Alec said.
It seemed to Blue Bonnet that after miles of hurried, heated scrambling they were still fathoms deep in those interminable woods. She felt that Alec was hurrying far beyond his strength; but he would not let her go on without him. She had given up counting the numbers of times she had stepped into the brook instead of over it, and the tears in her skirt.
Then at last, rounding a sharp curve, they saw the open meadow before them. They were crossing it when Alec held up his hand. “Listen!” he said.
Faint and clear through the summer stillness sounded the village clock, striking half-past five.
Suddenly the humor of the situation struck Blue Bonnet. “My first tea-party!” she gasped, between paroxysms of laughter.
“Come on,” Alec warned her. “There’s some one watching for you now down at the gate; probably there are scouts out in every direction.”