“Since you have declared that I am in league with those who saved my life when you would have taken it so cruelly, it is only fair to give me the opportunity of proving that I have spoken truly. Here is a trail, and if you neglect to follow it I shall insist that through your carelessness or wilfulness the spies escaped!”
It was this threat which stirred the soldiers to decided movement, and an instant later the sound of hurried footsteps told that they were moving in his direction.
The most flimsy of tricks had availed to save our lives, and it would be worse than folly if we failed to avail ourselves of the opportunity which might never occur again.
“Come!” Alec whispered, pulling me yet nearer the mouth of the cave. “At the worst we can only be captured, which is what must surely happen if we stay here.”
“Where would you go?” I asked, giving rein to the cowardly fear which had beset me when death seemed so near.
“We can at least follow them up. Having searched for a certain distance, it is not likely they will go over the same ground twice, and the slightest cover will avail us, providing it be beyond this place.”
Alec’s manner of speaking, which was really little less than a command, acted upon me in proper fashion.
I recognized the fact that he was the true leader, and ceased to question, which was what I should have done in the first place.
“Come on,” I said, now as eager to be in motion as I previously had been to hang back, and he lost no time.
In the distance we could hear Leon urging the soldiers to come to him, doing so solely for the purpose of giving us this poor opportunity to make the venture.