“Where to?”
“That we must discuss. I think I had b-b-better go straight in to Faenza. If I start late to-night and ride to Borgo San Lorenzo I can get my disguise arranged there and go straight on.”
“I don't see what else we can do,” she said, with an anxious little frown; “but it is very risky, your going off in such a hurry and trusting to the smugglers finding you a disguise at Borgo. You ought to have at least three clear days to double on your trace before you cross the frontier.”
“You needn't be afraid,” he answered, smiling; “I may get taken further on, but not at the frontier. Once in the hills I am as safe as here; there's not a smuggler in the Apennines that would betray me. What I am not quite sure about is how you are to get across.”
“Oh, that is very simple! I shall take Louisa Wright's passport and go for a holiday. No one knows me in the Romagna, but every spy knows you.”
“F-fortunately, so does every smuggler.”
She took out her watch.
“Half-past two. We have the afternoon and evening, then, if you are to start to-night.”
“Then the best thing will be for me to go home and settle everything now, and arrange about a good horse. I shall ride in to San Lorenzo; it will be safer.”
“But it won't be safe at all to hire a horse. The owner will——-”