The signals
ashore had attracted all the guards to that spot to join in the search,
and now, having doubled back and again embarked, we were every moment
increasing the distance between ourselves and our pursuers. I think we
must have rowed several miles, for ere we landed again, upon a low, flat
and barren shore, the first gray streak of day was showing in the east.
Elma noticed it, and kept her great brown eyes fixed upon it
thoughtfully. It was the dawn for her--the dawn of a new life. Our eyes
met; she smiled at me, and then gazed again eastward, full of silent
meaning.
Having landed, we drew the boat up and concealed it in the undergrowth
so that the guards, on searching, should not know the direction we had
taken, and then we went straight on northward across the low-lying
lands, to where the forest showed dark against the morning gray. The
mist had now somewhat cleared, but the air was keen and frosty.
This wood, we found, was of tall high pines, where walking was not
difficult, a wide wilderness of trees which, hour after hour, we
traversed in the vain endeavor to find the rough path which our guide
told us led for a hundred miles from Alavo down to Tammerfors, the
manufacturing center of the country.
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