IN FEAR OF A THRONE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14146, 23 August 1909, Page 3

IN FEAR OF A THRONE.

pijBUSHEB BY SPECIAL. ARRANGEMENT.

B Y R. ANDOM AND R. HODDER, ; ichors of "^*" e -hreo and Troddles," ) " Martha and I." " Tho Identity i Exchange," etc* I B y R. ANDOM AND R. HODDER, ■Anthers of "We Three and Troddles," " Martha and I." " Tho Identity Eichange," et*r* SJ tCOPYKIGHT.I J CHAPTER VII. I „ WHICH WK WANDER AFIELD, AND ARE * | - DRIVEN' INTO THE ENEMY'S RANKS. i! My hopes for an uneventful termination gl c { our escapade were not destined to bo fulfil filled, Indeed, we had gone scarcely a bun--1 ded .yards further when Murray stopped Suddenly and assumed a listening attitude. "What's that?" said he, in a stago whisI-' What's that?" said lie, in a stage, whisper. "What's what?' said I. "That rustling noise?" said Murray. "I lave heard it for quite a long while, and it suggests to me that we are being stalked." "Rubbish," said I, though with some misgivings' that it was not rubbish, but a possible and unpleasant fact. s "No," corrected Murray gravely. "Not rubbish, but feet, and I know the sound of stealthy pursuit among dead leaves and bushes too well to be mistaken. It is the itealthiness thai makes me suspicious." '-\ ; We listened hard and intently; but all H iras silent save, for an occasional flutter of §1 birds in the trees and bushes around us. •It was creepy waiting there in that dense ; wood for the unknown, and I looked at I' Murray inquiringly. • "Pretend ignorance, and walk on," ho "-. suggested. "We are not of much use to them, anyhow, if it is our friends of the 'opposition party, and they can scarcely ; want anything from us in the absence of Troddles." ; There was nothing else to be done, as far as I could see, but to continue our walk, .putting on the pace a little, and keeping alert for sounds which might tend to confirm our suspicion and help us to form some "idea of the location and number of our

| pursuers. < .-.There was very little doubt about it; we .'vera being followed. Every now and again a branch cracked, or a bush rustled on cur left; then a scuffle of feet came to us from pig opposite side., and shortly afterwards a. spre crossed a clearing directly ahead of is, stopped and regarded us for "a moment, and dodged back into the bushes. "Urn!" mused Murray. "Pleasant prospect! I'm father sorry "we came." :.'"So was I—very sorry ; but it seemed too obvious to be worth saying. "If we could only get out of these confounded trees into the open I shouldn't mind so much,'-' I remarked.

\ "Or among them," suggested Murray. "We can't see them, so possibly they can't fee us; in which case we might contrive to ; beat an unostentatious retreat at right angles to our present course. Come on, and tread warily. Lucky we have not blundering, elephantine old T. here." ~ "Very," said I, tensely, "or the hope of ;;?<tsenberg would stand a very good chance of being dashed." We sneaked off the road to the right, 'M, taking an oblique course, sped fleetly ever the yielding'turf. No evidence of pursuit came to us from out the darkening \;fnoa, and we were hopeful that we had thrown our pursuers off the scent, though that consideration was speedily lost sight of in the realisation that with "night coming ;on we were hopelessly lost. We had no •idea of where we were, or which way we had come; distance and direction had"both been lost sight of in our flight. After many hours of blind, heedless tracking through that black grim forest, we eame out at last on to open country with cultivated land in front of us, and sometiling like a road running on either side. -" Left or right," said Murray, generously vs»ing me the choice. i "Either." said I, evading it. ' We took the left. Twenty yards down it [KpMnated abruptly in a ditch. The ditch hras a couple of feet lower than the road, {ami half-full of water. Murray's remarks, i as he sat up in the stream, concerning his I hopes for the fools who had planted it I there, were of a nature to make a thoughtful man shudder. It is not a pleasant thing , : to sit down unexpectedly in mud and cold water at midnight, when you have been expecting something entirely different. I was standing in it up to my knees, and I could imagine circumstances which I should have regarded as more pleasant; but a man who has been brought up with the care that Murray has had expended over him ought not to revert to such primary savage instincts as he did then, whatever the provocation. >

It was clearly Murray's impression that I had chosen that road by express and malicious purpose in order to see him sit in a <htch at midnight. and hear him swear. It was useless to protest at such an obvious injustice, though I did venture to argue that, admitting the accuracy of his surmise, it was scarcely reasonable or rational to appose that I should have gone so far as to stand in it to keep him company. Murray said I did that just to give a verisimilitude to the affair which it would otherwise lack. Whereupon. I told Murray J few good and useful things which I thought it might benefit him to know, and, clambering out, I started back to try where the other direction of the road would lead 06.

■ Murray said, when he caught me up ten minutes later, that I had a beast of a temper. 1 He said it was disgusting for a man to allow himself to be put out to that extent over a wetted foot, and he had the audacity to call me to witness his own noble fortitude over a much greater degree of discomfort. Ip didn't witness, and Murray's equanimity, 60 quickly recovered, was in danger of being lost again by the unpleasant discovery that if one end of the road ended TO a ditch, the other terminated not much ; ©ore satisfactorily in a field of many acres, and- rough for pedestrian, purposes. I All'the same, we traversed it, and, wearily continuing our way, came at last on the crest of the ridge from which we could discern the twinkling lights of some big town. "Britsenb'Hg, with a capital B," said Murray jubilantly, forgetting his soaked and sodden condition in the joy of the discovery. "Three miles at the outside, and ell do it in a bit over the half-hour, and «ip on fowl and sleep on feathers after all. Come on!" ■ . I caught something of Murray's enthu'»«n, though I was forced to confess that * had experienced as much freedom and exercise as I cared about, and together we *t off at a lively pace for the delights promised by the optimistic Murray. I am inclined to think that Murray's idea of.the distance was rather an under-esti-m ate. At any rate, after half an hour's hard walking we seemed as far off as ever I K Hnthe lights which still twinkled ahead, though now on a level with us, and when, ** the expiration of another fifteen minu«V we were still a long way from the w>wn, he himself began to "grow more thoughtful and less sanguine of an easy termination to our troubles.

m , on my word, the beastly place seems MM trotting away from lie," he grumbled, .\~Q X .■another desperate spurt on our part .'naa brought us no compensating results. i i urged him not to bo idiotic, though I S «? S myself a trifle nonplussed to note that. yg■'.location of th « town had changed, ? a » whereas we had been coming straight S8 to it, it was now on our left, and the seemed to be leading us away from it. _ "h, it takes; a curve round the hills, I I ex P*ct," said i, hopefully. ;"' )e &> off once more, and walked for I Would be afraid to say bow many hours, ™*mg sight of the lights that guided us feter we started. 'a f ' We next saw t'hem they were right •j~_' roil t again, and- about the same disrjH I away as when we first came upon ; J* 01 - "The hideous truth flashed upon us "ftnltaneously. We had been walking in * c |rel«, and, for all we had accomplished, : tt e , lni sht as well have sat on the roadside 7** smoked, and with a good deal of Silage to ourselves as far as the. saving muscular energy was concerned. ?a .;fcK»fi©d in ■ sympathy, and then we .3**™- sat on the grass under a tree just and lit our fipe^.

With this, after so much strenuous exertion, came a philosophic acceptance of tho position. Murray was nearly asleep when we sat down, and quickly tumbled into a heavy slumber. I followed suit, and when I awoke again, cramped and stiff and aching with the exertions of the last evening, the sun was high in the heavens, and the forest was full of life and melody. .Unfortunately, we had both forgotten to wind our watches before falling asleep; but wo judged that it muet be ten, if not later, and with our desire for breakfast came sundry anxious thoughts concerning Troddtee and our host, .whom we had forsaken with scant courtesy or consideration. It was thoughtless and exceedingly, reprehensible in us. Wo could see that now as we stood up and shook ourselves together and performed, a hasty toilet with our hands. Murray looked decidedly rakish even then, and'l felt grubby, however I may have looked. Murray felt " grubby" 100, using the word in its slang sense l , and ho proposed a bee-line for the nearest inn, cattle-pen, or turnip field. 1 am constrained to think that the most dunder-headed bco existing would have made a bettor line than we did ; but half-an-hour's brisk walking fetched us to a farm, and that satisfied us. So did the farm people. We couldn't speak German, and they couldn't understand us, of course; but by the display of coins and a brilliant bit of pantomime, Murray contrived to convey the idea that we were in need of something eatable and drinkable, and wo got it. A fat and sympathetic old frau took us under her wing, having the grace of charity and motherly nature, and 1 am bound to say that we fared exceedingly well.

The equivalent for « shilling of our money was deemed the value of what we had oaten, and it was the cheapest and most satisfactory meal I have ever struck. We got a wash thrown in too, and the loan of a brush, and two men, very different from the couple of hungry, dirty, jaded tramps who* had landed there as a forlorn hope, set out to help in fashioning the history of Britsenberg. We got useful travelling directions too, learning that we were within an hour's walk of the town, and that Herr Winklestein's schloss lav on our road into it.

We walked leisurely, and with a keen eye for possible surprises, but nothing transpired to alarm us until the chimneys of the town came in sight, and with them a surging mob, extending right across the road, and indulging in a scrimmage that would have caused a Freshman to turn green with envy. Murray dearly loves a row, or we should have dodged into the woods and escaped attention. My more cautious nature prompted this course; but what is the use of having sage instincts when you are, in a sense, tied to a man who is devoid of common sense? I offered my advice to Murray, who was, however, panting hotfoot after a cracked head, and by the time I caught up to him we were in the midst of the fray. As far as wo could judge, it was rabbi© against duly accredited authority, and, by the force of circumstance, we were of the rabble—or with it and not of it, is perhaps a more exact statement, for it was a brick heaved by one of the rabble that caught me under the ear, and it was the fiat of authority's sword that, descending on Murray's back, knocked the wind out of him. In fact, we got it from all sides, as is the fate of those who mix themselves up in affairs in which neither their need nor their interests compel them to take a. hand.

Even Murray began to regret his hasty action; but repentance came late, and we had for a time to content ourselves with fighting impartially anyone who seemed likely to menace our liberty or lives, without in the least understanding or caring what it was all about. Authority, backed by order and training, t*.d, as it ever must do, and the rabble broke and fled at last, carrying us with it, only to be headed off by a reinforcement of the enemy, who rounded us up like a flock of sheep. It was a nice predicament, truly, and I was thinking hard things ,< of my friend, and rapidly turning over the possibilities of escape, when I noticed a man beating a strategic retreat under the very nose of his companions and would-be captors. For a moment he was visible; then he slipped," feet foremost, through a hedge that bordered one side of the road and had a handy ditch on the other side of it.

The lead was good enough for me, and, drawing Murray's attention to the chance thus offered, I slipped through after my unwitting guide and on to him, while Murrav came down with a rush on its both.

The fellow looked at us with a grin, and then his face changed. " You're not German," he whispered, with a nasal drawl.

"No; English," we whispered back. "And vou're Yank."

" Put it there, stranger," he replied. " I calculate you're keen on lighting out—and so am I. , We'll streak for it and talk after." We streaked—a hundred yards or so, stealthily along the ditch, until -we were past the enemy's lines, and then out on the further side and into the woods. It was clever and resourceful; but not entirely successful. There was small doubt that we were being followed or —which, we couldn't determine, because we had no idea to which side the men behind us belonged. They were persistent, whoever they were, and all the skill of the American, who seemed to know the country and to be an adept at the art of dodging unwelcome attention, did not serve to check them. We decided to run it out fairly and squarely at last, and run we did, through forest and over fields, until, spent and breathless, we saw that our efforts were vain. Our pursuers were mostly uniformed and of the enemy, as far as the Yank was concerned. By running we had put ourselves out of 'court, so to speak, or we might have bluffed and been rabble or otherwise, as the situation demanded. Our companion used odd chunks of American profanity that were forcible and greatly expressive; but he was evidently not minded to be captured, and, running his eye rapidly round, he saw an old barn and headed for it straight away. The barn was a mere lean-to structure full of sacks of ammunition in the 6hape of potatoes, and the next moment these missiles were flying merrily. The enemy, seven in number, came on bravely; but against that withering storm of potatoes, which caught them in the ribs and knocked the breath out of them, in the face, and paralysed them, no bravery unaided by modern invention could stand. Three of the seven were hurt, and retired beyond range; the other four made a last gallant sortie on our stronghold, but only two arrived, so knocked out of time by potatoes that they fell into our hands without striking a blow for freedom.

" Pity there wasn't just one more of them," observed the Yank, reflectively, as we dropped them down behind some corn-stacks. "We could have changed into their uniforms and gone out to help hunt ourselves down. It's a tarnation little one-boss show, anyhow, and I may as well sample it all through. I've tried most of the available jobs about here, and the one I've got could be bettered. Promises don't cut much ice, and this Wolfram of theirs seems limited to promising and beer-swilling."

(To be continued daily).