"I shall stay whatever happens," said Clarissa. "Is it likely I shall go whilst Eva's fate hangs in the balance?"
"But it doesn't hang," said a husky voice from behind. "It's because I knew you'd be in such a funk about her that I've come," and there advanced into the circle a boy with grimed face and torn clothes that only those who knew him best could recognize as Jack.
"Jack! Jack!" cried Betty, throwing her arms about him, and her enormous feeling of relief found vent in hysterical laughter.
Questions poured in on the boy from every side.
"Where had he come from, where was Eva?" etc., but Tom, watching Jack's face paling under its grime, knew him fairly played out.
"Eva is with Jessie," was all he could gasp out, and he would have fallen to the ground but that Tom's arms caught him and laid him down gently on a bed of fern.
"Give him air and space and a drink of water. His story can wait till later. It's enough to know they are safe."
Tom's intervention saved Jack from fainting, and in a few minutes he was able to relate what had occurred.
"And when Eva was put to bed," he said, "I ran off to join the beaters, but I found the fire had swept on, taking a different course, so there was no need for further alarm. Then I sneaked off on my own to see if there was a chance of getting back to you, and I got through somehow."
"Came through the bush?" said Tom. "It was a horrible risk."