Hammersley felt Doris’s clasp tighten on his own. “She cannot have gotten far away. Search for her, _schafskopf_. Search the woods and rocks until morning. Take the other machine and follow his footsteps until you see them no more. Then follow his trail in the woods. Take the two _Försters_ with you. I will go back to Blaufelden to send for more men and question the guards who permitted his escape. Go!” The fugitives sat silently listening to the sounds below them, heard the orders to put the wounded man and the dead messenger into the machine and presently the commotion of departure as the machines were backed away from the gully, turned, in available spots, and then departed in opposite directions, General von Stromberg’s at full speed, the other slowly, while Captain Wentz walked on before, his shoulders bent, trying to follow the signs of Hammersley’s rubber soles in the road. But it had begun to rain steadily again and Hammersley was thankful, for it would not be long before all marks of his footsteps would be erased. CHAPTER XIX THE CAVE ON THE THORWALD “Safe?” he heard her whisper. “Yes, for the present.” “You have what you came for?” “I think so.” “And what shall we do now?” “Sleep. You’re dead beat. Come.” He rose and helped her to her feet, then after another pause, turned toward the wall of rocks behind them. “Do you think you can make it? It’s a difficult climb.” “Yes. I’ve that much left in me. You lead the way and I’ll follow.” Her teeth were chattering. As he touched her sleeve he found it soaked with moisture. “Poor child. You’re nearly frozen.” He had not been conscious of the occasional spatter of rain, for his leather jacket had kept him dry. “But I’ll have you warm and snug before you can say knife.” And when she questioned, “A fire----” he replied, “Isn’t that what one uses to get warm with?” “But here--tonight----?” “Oh, don’t bother. You’ll see.” They were climbing up the face of the slippery rocks, Hammersley pausing from time to time to let her rest, pulling her from above when he reached the ledges, and at last they came out into the amphitheater of bowlders from which he had descended. She was almost too weary for comment and followed blindly as he led her to the wall of the rock where he seemed to disappear in its very face. She followed him inside a dark opening and when they were well within he relinquished her hand and struck a match. A brief glimpse she had of a small chamber in the cliff not twenty feet square when the match went out. He struck another and shading it with his hand went forward. She saw him find what he was looking for and in a moment a candle, after faintly sputtering for a moment, sent forth a steady glow of light. “Sit here on this stool. I’ll have you right in a jiffy.” She obeyed him and looked around her. At one side was a bed of pine needles, at another a small table and in the middle of the rocky floor the gray embers of what had been a fire.