But she managed the retreat with conspicuous ability.

Ma led the long caravan into the bed of a running stream, so that there would remain not a single footprint to guide pursuers, then she sat in her saddle and gazed back at the silent camping place.
Trap her, eh?
Come upon her unprepared, would they?
Ha! ha! She laughed scornfully and tossed her head of midnight hair as she pictured the duke's rage at finding he had been foiled again, and by a mere slip of a girl! This was a good game and exciting, too.

Fetch Pa Briskow along, indeed! Why, these wild mountain folk would kill him; in their present mood they would rend a stranger hip from thigh.

If they dreamed, for instance, that she, their queen, was married-- Here was a new thought, and Ma's imagination leaped at it.

If these passionate people suspected that she had contracted a secret marriage with the--the Earl of Briskow, their jealousy would know no bounds.
They would probably slay Pa.