"The pursuit is farcical," said Meyer. "It would have been useless if we had undertaken it at once. At this hour it is a piece of ludicrous folly."
"You need not come," snapped Saunders, who, like the others, seemed to be in the worst of humours.
"Thanks," retorted Meyer. "We must play the game to its weary end. We have shown ourselves fools, and the least part of our penalty is a sleepless night after a restless day."
"We may overtake them yet," said Captain Lexa, who, with two of his riflemen, made up the little party.
"Impossibilities seem possibilities only to geniuses and fools," said Meyer rudely. "It is hardly necessary to state to which category we belong."
"While there is life there is hope," maintained Lexa stubbornly.
Meyer made an exclamation of contempt.
"Supposing the miracle is realised," he said, "and the slower catches the swifter, even then they will certainly outwit us again. In the proverb the tortoise caught the hare—but then the tortoise had brains."
Meyer's sarcasm had anything but a cheering effect on the dismal spirits of the company.
"To think of our never recognising them!" said Saunders bitterly. "To think of Trafford fooling us——"