“It's all right,” said Mrs. Knapp. “No—I can carry him—I want to carry him.”
The man opened the door, then closed and locked it as I helped Mrs. Knapp into the carriage.
“Have you got him safe?” asked Dicky incredulously. “Well, I'll have to say that you know more than I thought you did.” And the relief and satisfaction in his tone were so evident that I gladly repented of my suspicions of the light-hearted Dicky.
“Have you heard anything?” I asked him anxiously.
“I thought I heard a yell over here through the woods. We had better get out of here.”
“Don't wait a second,” said the man. “The south road comes over this other way. If you've heard anybody there, they will be here in five minutes. I'll follow you on a horse.”
With an injunction to haste, I stepped after Mrs. Knapp into the carriage, the door was shut, Dicky mounted the seat, and we rolled down the road on the return journey.
“Oh, how thankful I am!” cried Mrs. Knapp. “There is a weight of anxiety off my mind. Can you imagine what I have been fearing in the last month?”
“I had thought a little about that myself,” I confessed. “But we are not yet out of the woods, I am afraid.”
“Hark! what's that?” said Mrs. Knapp apprehensively.