De Richleau unthinkingly shrugged his shoulders; the sudden pain made him grimace. “I wish I was so optimistic as you, my friend. Living in the woods in the depths of winter will play the devil with my old bones. How we shall keep from freezing to death, I cannot think.”
“We’ll take every covering we can lay our hands on,” said Rex. “We’ll be all right if only we can throw the cops off our trail.” He yawned, loudly. “Lord, I guess I never knew what it was to be so tired.”
“Which direction do you suggest?” asked the Duke.
“North — just as far as we can hike it. It’s ten grand to a single greenback that they’ll figure we’re beating it back to Tobolsk and the steam-wagons!”
“That was our argument before,” said De Richleau, slowly. “We might have been successful had it not been that Leshkin knew you were after the jewels. Now we have no sleigh, and Simon cannot be moved more than a few miles in any direction. I am for doing the unexpected; let us stay in the heart of danger, while they are beating the country on every side. Mademoiselle, do you not know a cave, or some place in the forest near here where we could hide. We can take food for several days.”
“No, Monsieur, there are no caves, and the forest, as you know, has little undergrowth.”
“Wait!” exclaimed the Duke. “I have it, the Château! They will never dream that we shall return there, where we faced so much danger — there must be a hundred places in the ruins where we can hide.”
“That’s a great idea,” Rex nodded. “Leshkin and the boys’ll be back in the town or the air-park long ago. That is, what’s left of them.”
“You agree, Mademoiselle?” De Richleau asked, eagerly. “I value your advice.”
“Monsieur le Duc has reason,” she smiled. “I know every corner of those ruins — there are many places that are easy of defence, and there will be shelter for the little one.”