"It will be daylight between three and four o'clock, and we three can start out quietly and have a pleasant walk to Sadler's. It is only four miles, and we can take our time. We need not carry anything with us but what we choose to put in our pockets. We can pack our bags and leave them here, and Mr. Sadler will send for them. When we get there we can go to bed if we like, and have time enough for a good sleep before breakfast, and then we can take the morning stage and leave this place and everybody in it. Now please don't be hasty and tell me all this is foolish. Remember, if you stay here you have a quarrel on your hands, and I shall have hours of misery until that quarrel is settled; and no matter how it is settled, things will be disagreeable afterwards."
"Harriet," said Mr. Archibald, suddenly twisting himself so that he sat on the side of the bed, "your idea is a most admirable one. It suits me exactly. Let us run away. It is impossible for us to do anything better than that. Have you told Margery?"
"No," she answered, "but I will go to her at once."
"Be quick and quiet, then," said her husband, who had now entered fully into the spirit of the adventure; "nobody must hear us. I will dress, and then we will pack."
"Margery," said Mrs. Archibald, after three times shaking the sleeping girl, "you must get up. Your uncle and I are going away, and you must go with us."
Margery turned her great eyes on Mrs. Archibald, but asked no questions.
"Yes," said Mrs. Archibald, "we cannot stay in this camp any longer, on account of Mr. Raybold and various other things. Matters have come to a crisis, and we must go, and more than that, we must slip away so that the others may not go with us."
"When?" asked Margery, now speaking for the first time.
"So soon as that?" said the girl, a shadow on her brow which was very plain in the light of the candle which Mrs. Archibald had brought with her. "Surely not before breakfast?"
"Margery," said Mrs. Archibald, a little sharply, "you do not seem to understand--you are not awake; we must start as soon as it is light. But we cannot discuss it now. We are going, and you must go with us. You must get up and pack your things in your bag, which we shall send for."