“My dear Loo,” said he, caressingly, “all this is so unlike yourself. You, that never lacked courage in your life! you, that never knew what it was to be faint-hearted!”
“Well, you see me a coward at last,” said she, in a faint voice. “Go and do as I bade you, father; for this is no whim, believe me.”
The old man muttered out some indistinct grumblings, and left the room on his errand.
She had not been many minutes alone when she heard the sharp sounds of feet on the gravel, and could mark the voices of persons speaking together with rapidity. One she quickly recognized as her father's, the other she soon knew to be Trover's. The last words he uttered as he reached the door were, “Arrested at once!”
“Who is to be arrested at once?” cried she, rushing wildly to the door.
“We, if we are caught!” said Holmes. “There's no time for explanation now. Get your traps together, and let us be off in quick time.”
“It is good counsel he gives you,” said Trover. “The game is up, and nothing but flight can save us. The great question is, which way to go.”
She pressed her hands to her temples for a moment, and then, as if recalled, by the peril, to her old activity of thought and action, said,—
“Let Johann fetch his cousin quickly; they both row well, and the boat is ready at the foot of the garden. We can reach Rorschach in a couple of hours, and make our way over to St. Gall.”
“And then?” asked Trover, peevishly.