rs were grouped the thickest. But her
bells betrayed her. From before her they scattered and broke apart,
stumbling, groping with outstretched hands to find the wall, jostling
into one another, caroming off again, whooping with laughter. Fast as
Madame Ybanca advanced, the rest all managed to evade her. She halted,
laughing in admission of the handicap upon her, when before she had been
so confident of a capture; then, changing her tactics, she undertook to
stalk down some member of the blindfolded flock by stealthy, gentle
forward steps. But softly though she might advance, the telltale bells
gave ample notice of her whereabouts, and the troop fled. Moreover, even
when she succeeded--as she soon did--in herding someone into a corner,
the prospective victim, a man, managed to slip past her out of danger,
being favoured by the fact that to grasp him with one of her fettered
hands she must turn entirely about. So he was able to wriggle out of
peril and her clutching fingers closed only on empty air.

"It's not so easy as it seemed," she confessed.

"Keep trying," counselled the referee, keeping pace with her. Miss
Smith's eyes were darting everywhere at once, watching the hooded
figures keenly, as though to detect any who might seek to cheat by
lifting his or her mufflings. "You're sure to catch somebody presently.
They can't dodge you every time, you know."

So Madame Ybanca tried again. Ahead of her the fugitives stampeded,
milling about in uncertain circles, gliding past her along the walls,
fleeing from one room to the other and back again--singly, by pairs and
threes. They touched her often, but by reason of her hampered state she
never could touch, with her hands, any of them in their flight.

As Mrs. Hadley-Smith, fleeing alone, came through the doorway with both
her arms outstretched to fend off possible collisions, a sharp low
whisper spoken right alongside of her made her halt. The whisperer was
her cousin. Unobserved by the madame and unheard by any one else, Miss
Smith spoke a word or two in her cousin's ear. The next instant almost
Mrs. Hadley-Smith, apparently becoming confused as to the direction from
which the sounds of bells approached, hesitated in indecision and was
fairly trapped by the pursuer.

"Who's caught? Who's caught?" cried several together.

"You're not supposed to know--that makes the fun all the better," cried
Miss Smith. "You may halt a bit to get your breath, but nobody is to
touch h