The hum of bees filled the air, and the August flies buzzed about his sweating brow, for he had lost his cap.

But behind him--nothing.

Already the stillness of the wood had closed upon his track.
He was not the less panic-stricken.

He supposed that Tavannes' people were getting to horse, and calculated that, if they surrounded and beat the wood, he must be taken.

At the thought, though he had barely got his breath, he rose, and keeping within the coppice crawled down the slope towards the river.