“Get into a carriage—quick, quick, quick!” hissed the Head Captain, and he heard the Vicar panting as she shoved him under the flap of the sheet that draped a high-swung victoria. She was with him, huddled close beside him on the floor of the carriage, and it seemed hardly credible that the clatter of the Head Captain’s hasty dive into the neighboring surrey could have failed to catch the ear of the man who entered the barn. But he heard nothing. He walked by them lazily, he paused and struck a match on the wheel of the victoria, and the smell of tobacco crept in under the sheet. It seemed to the Vicar that the thumping of her heart must shake the carriage. She dared not gasp for breath, but she knew she should burst if that man stood there much longer. It could not be possible that he wouldn’t find them. Ah, how little he knew! Right under his very pipe lay those who could take away everything in his old barn if they chose. Perhaps the very surrey that now held that terrible Head Captain might be gone ere morning, he had such ambitions, such vaulting dreams. Thump! thump! thump! went her heart, and the Lieutenant’s breath whistled through his teeth. Never in their lives had such straining excitement possessed their every nerve. Oh, go on, go on, or we shall scream! He sauntered by, he opened some door at the rear. The latch all but clicked, when a hollow but unmistakable sneeze burst from the Head Captain’s surrey. Immediately the door opened again. The man took a step back. All was deathly still, the echoes of their leader’s fateful sneeze alone thrilled the hearts of his anguished followers. [Illustration: “_She knew she should burst if that man stood there much longer.”_] “Humph!” muttered a deep voice, “that’s queer. Anybody out there?” Silence. Silence that buzzed and hummed and roared in the Vicar’s ears. “Queer—I thought I heard.... Damn queer!” muttered the man. The Lieutenant shuddered. That was a word whose possibilities he hesitated to consider. Piracy is bad enough, heaven knows, but profanity is surely worse. Again the latch clicked. After an artful pause the nose of the Head Captain appeared, inserted at an inquiring angle between the two sheets that draped the surrey. Cautiously he swung himself down, cautiously he tiptoed toward the others. “_Sst! Sst!_ All safe!” he whispered. They scrambled out, and a glance at his reserved frown taught them that the recent sneeze must not be mentioned. Like cats they crept up the stairs, and only the Head Captain’s great presence of mind prevented their falling backward down the flight, for there on the hay before them lay a man stretched at full length, breathing heavily. His face was a deep red in color, and a strong, sweetish odor filled the loft. They turned about at the Head Captain’s warning gesture, and waited while he stole fearfully up and examined the man. When he rejoined them there was a new triumph in his eyes, a greater exaltation in his hurried speech.