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Authors: Dornford Yates
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sufficient to teach us the truth.
The lights were those of two tenders, belonging to Riechtenburg troops. They were standing not twenty feet from the mouth of the bridle-path. This was picketed. I could see the movement of soldiers about a fire. And when I crept closer, I heard a sergeant reporting how he had placed his men.
‘In addition to that, sir,’ he concluded, ‘there are the visiting patrols. I will take my oath that no one can pass our line.’
‘Very good,’ said his officer. ‘And, damn it, mighty quick work. How long is it since we got here?’
‘Just twenty-five minutes, sir,’ was the proud reply.
3: In Hiding
Regret was vain. But if it was vain, it was bitter as the salt of the sea.
Our mistakes stood out as glaring as shadows thrown upon a screen, and, prime among them, our folly of leaving the car.
That error was, of course, prodigious, and how we came to make it I do not know; but I think that to Grieg must go the credit of making us lose our race.
Our meeting with the man so shook us as to magnify out of reason the risk we ran of pursuit; and so we swerved from our objective, and, turning from the vital business of gaining the bridle-path, made sure of the trifling matter of covering up our tracks.
Be that as it may, we were beaten, and, though for one frantic moment I was for making an attempt to pass the sentries, the Countess’ exhausted condition forbade so forlorn a hope.
Now if we were not to be taken as soon as day broke, we must instantly seek some shelter and indeed be gone into hiding within two hours, for, if troops had been sent to guard the frontier against us, it went without saying that the country would be scoured to find us and that the drive would begin the moment the daylight came. We, therefore, tried to consider which way we had better go, to find ourselves in a very sea of troubles, with nothing to show us which way we had better turn.
Between where we stood and Vardar the country was very open and dotted with farms, and the nearest shelter we knew was the wood in which we had rested by the side of the railway line. And that lay some six miles off – a distance which, without Madame Dresden, I doubt if we could have covered before it was light. Yet, had we been able to make it, what sort of bulwark was a wood when the country was up against us and troops were out? Then, again, we had none of us eaten for nearly twelve hours and, if we avoided capture by lying hid, where was our food to come from, and how could we live? Finally, though it was summer, the nights were fresh, and Madame Dresden, already in need of succour, could never stand an exposure such as not even the peasants were called upon to endure.
We had all but given up hope, when I remembered Ramon, the smith whose forge was at Gola, three miles away.
One minute later we were hastening towards the village we could not see.
I must confess that I had small hope of success.
I was sure that the man was grateful, but we were about to set him a task which he could not perform. To harbour and feed five strangers in the teeth of the law… Here was work for a noble, with a mansion and trusty servants to do as he said. A village blacksmith could no more do it than fly. Still, he might take in the countess, and Carol might pose as his workman and, being a man of the country, pass unremarked as a helper attached to the forge.
These and such thoughts thrust into and out of my brain, though, what with the shock of disappointment, the danger the dawn was bringing and our weariness of body and soul, I found myself unable to think to any purpose and very soon gave myself up to the business of reaching Gola and finding the forge.
This we did at a quarter past three, and none too soon, for the cocks were already crowing, and the grey of the dawn was stealing over the hills.
The village was very small and seemed to have but one street, but the forge was the first of its houses and stood by itself. For this we were
The lights were those of two tenders, belonging to Riechtenburg troops. They were standing not twenty feet from the mouth of the bridle-path. This was picketed. I could see the movement of soldiers about a fire. And when I crept closer, I heard a sergeant reporting how he had placed his men.
‘In addition to that, sir,’ he concluded, ‘there are the visiting patrols. I will take my oath that no one can pass our line.’
‘Very good,’ said his officer. ‘And, damn it, mighty quick work. How long is it since we got here?’
‘Just twenty-five minutes, sir,’ was the proud reply.
3: In Hiding
Regret was vain. But if it was vain, it was bitter as the salt of the sea.
Our mistakes stood out as glaring as shadows thrown upon a screen, and, prime among them, our folly of leaving the car.
That error was, of course, prodigious, and how we came to make it I do not know; but I think that to Grieg must go the credit of making us lose our race.
Our meeting with the man so shook us as to magnify out of reason the risk we ran of pursuit; and so we swerved from our objective, and, turning from the vital business of gaining the bridle-path, made sure of the trifling matter of covering up our tracks.
Be that as it may, we were beaten, and, though for one frantic moment I was for making an attempt to pass the sentries, the Countess’ exhausted condition forbade so forlorn a hope.
Now if we were not to be taken as soon as day broke, we must instantly seek some shelter and indeed be gone into hiding within two hours, for, if troops had been sent to guard the frontier against us, it went without saying that the country would be scoured to find us and that the drive would begin the moment the daylight came. We, therefore, tried to consider which way we had better go, to find ourselves in a very sea of troubles, with nothing to show us which way we had better turn.
Between where we stood and Vardar the country was very open and dotted with farms, and the nearest shelter we knew was the wood in which we had rested by the side of the railway line. And that lay some six miles off – a distance which, without Madame Dresden, I doubt if we could have covered before it was light. Yet, had we been able to make it, what sort of bulwark was a wood when the country was up against us and troops were out? Then, again, we had none of us eaten for nearly twelve hours and, if we avoided capture by lying hid, where was our food to come from, and how could we live? Finally, though it was summer, the nights were fresh, and Madame Dresden, already in need of succour, could never stand an exposure such as not even the peasants were called upon to endure.
We had all but given up hope, when I remembered Ramon, the smith whose forge was at Gola, three miles away.
One minute later we were hastening towards the village we could not see.
I must confess that I had small hope of success.
I was sure that the man was grateful, but we were about to set him a task which he could not perform. To harbour and feed five strangers in the teeth of the law… Here was work for a noble, with a mansion and trusty servants to do as he said. A village blacksmith could no more do it than fly. Still, he might take in the countess, and Carol might pose as his workman and, being a man of the country, pass unremarked as a helper attached to the forge.
These and such thoughts thrust into and out of my brain, though, what with the shock of disappointment, the danger the dawn was bringing and our weariness of body and soul, I found myself unable to think to any purpose and very soon gave myself up to the business of reaching Gola and finding the forge.
This we did at a quarter past three, and none too soon, for the cocks were already crowing, and the grey of the dawn was stealing over the hills.
The village was very small and seemed to have but one street, but the forge was the first of its houses and stood by itself. For this we were
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