Carmel proceeded rapidly; too rapidly for such precautions as she should have observed. She was without plan; her mind was in such chaos as to render planning futile. Instinct alone was not inactive.... No matter how shaken the objective faculties may be, those superior subjective intuitions and inhibitions and urgings never sleep. Their business is so largely with the preservation of the body which they inhabit that they dare not sleep. Quite without thinking; without a clear idea why she did so, Carmel turned off the road and took to the woods. Self-preservation was at work. Instinct was in control.... The gentlemen behind quickened their pace, disgruntled at this lack of consideration on the part of their quarry.... It was with some difficulty they found the place where she entered the woods.... Carmel herself had vanished utterly. In that black maze, a tangle of slashings, a huddle of close-growing young spruce, it was impossible to descry her, to tell in which direction she had turned. Nor did they dare make use of a flashlight in an effort to follow her trail. However, they must needs do something, so, keeping the general direction of the hotel, paralleling the road, they proceeded slowly, baffled, but hopeful.... CHAPTER XXIII It is not easy for one unaccustomed to the woods to remain undeviatingly upon his course even in the daytime; at night it can be accomplished only by a miracle. Carmel, in a state of agitation which was not distant from hysteria, had paused neither to consider nor to take her bearings. Of herself she was utterly careless. The only thought in her mind was to reach, and in some manner to give aid to, Evan Pell if he remained alive. Instinct alone moved her to turn off the road and seek the protection of the forest. Once engulfed in its blackness she stumbled alone, tripping, falling, turning, twisting--hurrying, always hurrying.... The physical exertion cleared her brain, reduced her to something like rationality. She paused, leaned panting against the bole of a great beech ... and discovered she was lost.