“There is danger, Excellency—­a grave danger!” he said in a low half whisper.  “Three boats are in search of us.”

And scarcely had he uttered those words when there was the flash of a rifle from the haze, a loud report, and again a bullet whizzed past just behind my head.  In an instant the truth became apparent, for I saw the dark shadow of a boat rapidly rowed, bearing full upon us.  The shot had been fired as a signal that we had been sighted, and were pursued.  Other shots rang out, mingled with the wild exultant shouts of the guards as they bore down full upon us, and then I knew that, notwithstanding our escape, we were now lost.  They were too close upon us to admit of eluding them.  The peril we had dreaded had fallen.  The Finn’s presence on the bank had evidently been detected by a boat drawn up at the shore, and he had been followed to where we had lain in what we had so foolishly believed to be a safe hiding-place.  Nought else was to be done but to face the inevitable.  Three times the red fire of a rifle belched angrily in our faces, and yet, by good fortune, neither of us was struck.  Yet we knew too well that the intention of our pursuers was to kill us.

“Quick, Excellency!  Fly! while there is yet time!” gasped the Finn, grasping my hand and half dragging me from the boat, while, I, in turn, placed Elma upon the bank.

“Hoida! This way!  Swiftly!” cried our guide, and the three of us, heedless of the consequences, plunged forward into the impenetrable darkness, just as our fierce pursuers came alongside where we had only a moment ago been seated.  They shouted wildly as they sprang to land after us, but our guide, who had been born and bred in these forests, knew well how to travel in a semi-circle, and how to conceal himself.  It was a race for freedom—­nay, for very life.

So dark that we could see before us hardly a foot, we were compelled to place our hands in front of us to avoid collision with the big tree trunks, while ever and anon we found ourselves entangled in the mass of dead creepers and vegetable parasites that formed the dense undergrowth.  Around us on every side we heard the shouts and curses of our pursuers, while above the rest we heard an authoritative voice, evidently that of a sergeant of the guard, cry—­

“Shoot the man, but spare the woman!  The Colonel wants her back.  Don’t let her escape!  We shall be well rewarded.  So keep on, comrades! Mene edemmaeski!”

But the trembling girl beside me heard nothing, and perhaps indeed it was best that she could not hear.  My only fear was that our pursuers, of whom there now seemed to be a dozen, had extended, with the intention of encircling us.  They, no doubt, knew every inch of that giant forest with its numerous bogs and marshes, and if they could not discover us would no doubt drive us into one or other of the bogs, where escape was impossible.

Our gallant guide, on the other hand, seemed to utterly disregard the danger and kept on, every now and then stretching out his hand and helping along the afflicted girl we had rescued from that living tomb.  Headlong we went in a straight line, until suddenly we began to feel our feet sinking into the soft ground, and then the Finlander turned to the left, at right angles, and we found ourselves in a denser undergrowth, where in the darkness our hands and faces became badly scratched.