Oh, if she could only fly—over those big stone walls. But the outside was even more closely guarded than was the inside, especially since two patients had so lately escaped.
Down the steps went the trembling girl. How splendid it was in the fresh morning air!
"And if I can only get a message back to camp," she was thinking. "What will happen to dear father if I am not soon discovered?"
Over the stone walk she sped. She glanced down the path. The front gate was impossible. Back of the institution she saw a great barn—then water! Oh, if she could but pass the stablemen. They would not be as keen to suspect as would be the guards.
Every one seemed busy. They were cleaning the horses, and fixing up the big stables. Merry morning words floated through the air, and it seemed to Dorothy that her presence, that of a nurse, as they supposed, was always the signal for some joke, or some frivolous remark. But there was no harm in this, she thought. Inside of stone walls everybody must be akin.
"Hello, there!" called a rather young man, who in shirt sleeves, was rubbing down a horse. "Where are you going so early?"
Dorothy scarcely dared answer. But fate saved her, for at that moment the horse took fright at something and broke away from its post.
Instantly there was confusion, and Dorothy was forgotten. Up on the terrace were patients out in the air with guards, and in that direction dashed the horse, while every man from the stable ran after it.
This left Dorothy almost free.
She saw a summer-house on the edge of a lake. Yes, and there was a canoe!