‘I was thinking how sorry Jack Kennion will be to have missed this day.’
And then there happened the most remarkable, the most surprising thing in the whole of this surprising campaign. There was a movement among the men in front, followed by loud laughing and shouting; and then a party of girls, some of the Company of women which followed the army, came flying across the Heath breathless, because they had run all the way from Marble Arch to convey their news.
‘They have run away, my lord!’ they cried all together.
‘Who have run away?’
‘The Army of Avengers—the Convict Wardens. They have all run away, and there is not one left.’
‘Run away? What does it mean? Why did they run away?’
Then the girls looked at each other and laughed, but were a little ashamed, because they were not quite sure how the Chief would take it.
‘It seemed such a pity,’ said one of them, presently, ‘that any of our own brave fellows should be killed.’
‘Such a dreadful pity,’ they murmured.
‘And by such cruel men.’