dropped again on all-fours.

"No, no," he gasped. "Come on! come on! We are close there."

Pen was breathing hard as he too followed his comrade's movements just
as if forced thereto by the natural instinct that prompted imitation;
but the moment he reached his feet he dropped down again heavily, and
then began to crawl awkwardly forward so that he might from time to time
catch a glimpse of Punch's retiring form.

"Come on, come on!" kept reaching his ears; and then he felt dizzy and
sick at heart.

It seemed to be growing dark all at once, but he set it down to the
closing-in of the overshadowing trees. And then minutes passed of
confusion, exertion, and a feeling as of suffocation consequent upon the
difficulty of catching his breath.

Then at last--he could not tell how long after--Punch was whispering in
his ear as they lay side by side so close together that the boy's breath
came hot upon his cheek.

"Oh, how slow you have been! But this 'ere will do--must do, for we can
get no farther. Why, you were worse than me. Hurt yourself when you
went down?"

Pen was about to reply, when a French voice shouted, "Forward! Right
through the forest!"

There was the trampling of feet, the crackling of dead twigs, and
Punch's hand gripped his companion's arm with painful force, as the two
lads lay breathless, with their faces buried in the thick covering of
past years' dead leaves, till the trampling died away and the fugitives
dared to raise their faces a little in the fight for breath.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

HIDE-AND-SEEK.

"Oh, I say," whispered Punch, in a half-suffocated tone, "my word! Talk
about near as a toucher! It's all right, comrade; but if I had held my
breath half a jiffy longer I should have gone off pop. Don't you call
this a game? Hide-and-seek and whoop is nothing to it! Garn with you,
you thick-headed old frog-soup eaters! Wait till I get my breath. I
want to laugh.--Can't hear 'em now; can you?"

"No," said Pen faintly. "Will they come back?"

"Not they," replied Punch chuckling. "Couldn't find the way again if
they tried. But we shall have to stay here now till it's dark. It
don't matter. I want to cool down and get my wind. I say, though,
catch your foot on a stone?"

"No," replied Pen, breathing hard.

"Thought you did. You did go down--quelch! What you breathing like
that for? You did get out of breath! Turn over on your back. There's
nobody to see us now.