A sharp sense of nervousness pricked her.  There seemed to be something ominous in the atmosphere; or was it only in her own heart that it existed?  And where was Nap?  Surely he had been gone for a very long time!

She rose stiffly and picked up his coat.  At the same instant a shrill whistle sounded through the wood, and in a moment she saw him coming swiftly towards her.

Quietly she moved to meet him.

He began to speak before he reached her.  “I was afraid you would be tired of waiting and wander about till you got frightened and lost yourself.  Do you ever have hysterics?”

“Never,” said Anne firmly.

He took his coat and began to wriggle into it, surveying her meantime with a smile half-speculative, half-rueful.

“Well, that’s a weight off my mind, anyway,” he remarked at length.  “For I have a staggering piece of news for you which I hardly dare to impart.  Oh, it’s no good looking at your watch.  It’s hopelessly late, nearly six o’clock, and in any case I can’t get you home to-night.  There’s no petrol.”

“Nap!” Anne’s voice was a curious compound of consternation and relief.  Somehow—­doubtless it was the effect of thunder in the atmosphere—­she had expected something in the nature of tragedy.

Nap put on his most contrite air.  “Do be a brick and take it nicely!” he pleaded.  “I know I was an all-fired fool not to see to it for myself.  But I was called away, and so I had to leave it to those dunderheads at the garage.  I only made the discovery when I left you a couple of hours ago.  There was just enough left to take me to Rodding, so I pelted off at once to some motorworks I knew of there, only to find the place was empty.  It’s a hole of a town.  There was some game on, and I couldn’t get a conveyance anywhere.  So I just put up the motor and came back across country on foot.  I don’t see what else I could have done, do you?”

Anne did not for the moment, but she was considering the situation too rapidly to answer him.

“My only consolation,” he went on, “is that you have got a change of raiment, which is more than I have.  Oh, yes, I had the sense to think of that contingency.  Your bag is at the inn here, waiting for you.”

“You had better have taken me back with you to Rodding,” Anne said.

“Yes, I know.  But I expected to be back in half an hour if all went well.  It’s easy to be wise after the event, isn’t it?  I’ve thought of that myself since.”  Nap picked up a twig and bit it viciously.  “Anyway, there is some tea waiting for us.  Shall we go back?”

Anne turned beside him.  “Then what do you propose to do?”

He glanced at her.  “Nothing before morning, I’m afraid.  There is no vehicle to be had here.  I will send someone down to Rodding in the morning for a conveyance.  We can take the train from there to Staps, where I can get some petrol.  We ought by that means to reach home sometime in the afternoon.  It is the only feasible plan, I am afraid; unless you can suggest a better.”