There's some one
there who may be in danger, so the sooner I am there the better."
"But wait a moment," the general cried. "Are you armed?"
"Yes, with my hands, I shall want no more when Walter and I meet
again," Rupert answered, and, without another word, plunged into
the wood at the spot where Walter had vanished.
At first the track of Walter's flying footsteps was plain enough
for he had fled full speed, panic having overtaken him when he saw
Rupert and his father together and understood that in some way his
deep conspiracy had failed and his treachery become known.
For a little distance, therefore, he had crashed through bracken
and undergrowth, heedless of all but the one need that was upon him
to flee away and escape while there was yet time. But, after a
while, his first panic subsiding, he had gone more carefully, and,
as the weather had been very dry of late, when he came to open
ground his footmarks were scarcely visible.
In such spots Rupert could make but slow progress, and he was
handicapped, too, by the fact, that all the time he had to be on
his guard lest from some unsuspected quarter his enemy should come
upon him unawares.
For, indeed, this enterprise he had undertaken in the flood tide of
his passion and fierce anger was dangerous enough since he, quite
weaponless, was following up a very desperate armed man who would
know that for him there could be henceforth no question of mercy.
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