be quite well
again."

"Nay, nay, let them come, dear, and the very exertion will cheer
you. You promised that American to sing him one of his nigger
melodies,--don't forget that."

"Go and tell them that I have been obliged to take to bed, father," said
she, in a hollow voice. "It is no falsehood to call me very ill."

"My dear Loo," said he, caressingly, "all this is so unlike yourself.
You, that never lacked courage in your life! _you_, that never knew
what it was to be faint-hearted!"

"Well, you see me a coward at last," said she, in a faint voice. "Go and
do as I bade you, father; for this is no whim, believe me."

The old man muttered out some indistinct grumblings, and left the room
on his errand.

She had not been many minutes alone when she heard the sharp sounds
of feet on the gravel, and could mark the voices of persons speaking
together with rapidity. One she quickly recognized as her father's,
the other she soon knew to be Trover's. The last words he uttered as he
reached the door were, "Arrested at once!"

"Who is to be arrested at once?" cried she, rushing wildly to the door.

"We, if we are caught!" said Holmes. "There's no time for explanation
now. Get your traps together, and let us be off in quick time."

"It is good counsel he gives you," said Trover. "The game is up, and
nothing but flight can save us. The great question is, which way to go."

She pressed her hands to her temples for a moment, and then, as if
recalled, by the peril, to her old activity of thought and action,
said,--

"Let Johann fetch his cousin quickly; they both row well, and the boat
is ready at the foot of the garden. We can reach Rorschach in a couple
of hours, and make our way over to St. Gall."

"And then?" asked Trover, peevishly.

"We are, at least, in a mountain region, where there are neither
railroads nor telegraphs."

"She is right Her plan is a good one, Trover," broke in Holmes. "Go
fetch what things you mean to take with you, and come back at once. We
shall be ready by that time."

"If there be danger, why go back at all?" said she. "Remember, I know
nothing of the perils that you speak of, nor do I ask to know till we
are on the road out of them. But stay here, and help us to get our pack
made."

"Now you are yourself again! now I know you, Loo," said Holmes, in a
tone of triumph.

In less than half an hoar after they were skimming across the Lake of
Constance as fast as a light skiff and str