"If he's anywhere near here, that'll bring him!" she thought. For a moment all was silence, then came a crashing among the bushes, and an answering call. Someone was coming in the direction of the yew-tree. Peeping from her hiding-place, Raymonde could just distinguish a man's figure advancing through the gathering darkness of the wood. Then awful fear fell upon her. Suppose he were to look inside the hollow tree and find her? He was a German, and a desperate man; she was a girl, and alone. Why, oh why had she sent Aveline away? He would be quite capable of murdering her. In that moment of agony she bitterly repented her folly. To be sure, there were the gipsies, but she was not certain whether they were really within call, and would come quickly in answer to her signal. The footsteps drew nearer, they were almost at the tree; she shrank to the farthest corner, trusting that in the darkness her brown serge school costume might escape notice. Just at that moment another cautious shout sounded through the wood. The footsteps stopped, so near to her tree that Raymonde could see the flap of a coat through the opening; then they turned, and went in the direction of the voice. Raymonde drew a long breath of intense relief, and peeped out. The man was tacking down a little incline towards the brook, guided by a further call. "I've seen he's here, and I know he's going down there to meet her," thought Raymonde. "It's time for me to act." She slipped from the tree, ran nearer to the edge of the wood, and gave the peculiar blackbird-like whistle which the Romany woman had taught her. Its effect was immediate. Within ten seconds one of the gipsy boys ran up to her, and she told him briefly what had occurred. "I'll pass the signal on," he replied. "There's a ring of us all round the wood. We won't let him go, you bet!" He gave a low cry like the hooting of an owl, which was at once answered from the right and the left. "That means 'close the ring'," he explained. "We've all sorts of calls that we understand and talk to each other by when we're in the woods. They'll all be moving on now." The gipsy boy went forward, and Raymonde, with her heart again thumping wildly, followed at a little distance. This was indeed an adventure. She wondered where Aveline was, and if she were equally frightened. She wished she had not left her friend alone. The gipsies, well versed in wood-craft, walked as silently as hunters stalking a buck. She would not have known they were within a mile of her, had she not been told. Her boy guide had vanished temporarily among the bushes. She stood still for a few minutes, uncertain what to do.