“Gad, I thought I heard something over there in the croquet ground.  Sounded like some one mixing it up with a wicket.  Quick!  Out this way!” He had her hand in his, and was rushing ruthlessly through flower-beds toward the big gate, her travelling bag banging against his knee with the insistence of a hundredweight.

Panting and gasping for breath, they finally floundered into the roadway, and dashed off through the muddy surface toward the unseen automobile.

She was half fainting with the panic of excitement as he started to lift her into the tonneau of the car.  “No, no!  Please let me sit with you in the front seat,” she implored.  She had her way, and a moment later he was up beside her, both wrapped in the oil-cloths, the drizzle blowing in their hot faces.

“We’re off, thank God!” he whispered joyously, as the car leaped forward under his hand.

“I wonder—­oh, dear, how I wonder what mamma will say,” she was crying in his ear.

Dauntless grinned happily as the car shot onward through the blackness of the night.  Its lanterns were dark and cold, but he knew the road.

CHAPTER II

THE FLYERS CATCH THE FLYER

No one would have recognised either of them had it been possible to see them,—­so carefully were their heads swathed in their coverings.  She was veiled and he was goggled, and both of them scrooged down in the seat apprehensively.  Hardy’s car, borrowed in reality for the occasion, was performing nobly.  It careened through the muddy streets of the village with a sturdiness that augured well for the enterprise.  Out into the country road, scudding northward, it sped.  Dauntless increased the speed, not to the limit, on account of the fog and uncertainty of the road, but enough to add new thrills to the girl who crouched beside him.  Neither spoke until they were far from the town line; the strain was too intense.

“What will everybody say?” she finally cried in his ear—­the most natural question in the world.  “And the newspapers?  Oh, dear!”

“You’re not weakening, are you?” he cried.  “Shall I turn back?”

She was silent for half a mile.

“No,” she replied at last, “I couldn’t climb up that ladder.  And besides—­” with a gasp as the car shot over the railroad tracks,—­“we never could get as good a start as this again.”

“Bully for you!” he shouted.

“How far is it to Fenlock, Joe?” she asked, a quaver in her high-pitched voice.

“About seven miles.  We’ll take the short cut through O’Brien’s Lane and strike Cobberly Road again at the crossroads.  Then it will be easy going.  We’ll catch the flyer all right, Nell.  Everything’s arranged.  You go into Car 5 and I in Car 7—­”

“With a whole car between us?  Heavens!”

“It’s safest, dear.  There might happen to be some one on board who’d know us and suspect.  Keep your veil down until you get into the berth.  There’s not much danger of any one being up at this time of night, but don’t take any chances.”