The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-01-25

= ! 49,
his eyes from the swelling uplands
where the figures shifted in and out,
but always nearer and nearer. Every
minute dragged and yet flew.
1t was with a rebound of spirits SO
great as to send lis mood swinging back
TO almost reckless confidence that he
sprang at last into the saddle and felt
the mare take the bit in her teeth. All
would 90 we'll now, though he could
see the troopers faces set and logged,
though lie could catch the muffied
drumming of the houfs on the heath
and grass, and the next moment their
matchlccks cracked sharply and a cou-
pie of bullets actually grazed his cheek
and the mares quarter, making her
bound forward. He went down the
slope with a smile on his lips and a
bold defiance in his eyes. All would 60
we'll now!
The slope, which was abrupt, hid
him from them. He laughed scornfully
when two more loud reports heralded
the advent of more bullets, which flew
high above his head.
"They are lavish of their powder, the
knaves. Do they lose heart:" was his
thought. And tben-even as he flashed
into the little village street, scattering
knots of idIers whom the firing seemed
to have drawn out of doors-with a sud-
den misgiving inspired by or confirmed
by (both so nearly simultaneous that he
could not have told which,, an impress
sion of certain figures who were not
yokels, aud the next moment by the
sight of a group of horses ready bridled
and saddled by a drinking trough:
SIS it a si2Dal?:"
He was prepared when an unfriendly
hand made a snatch at his bride. The
butt end of his pistol brought down on
the mans wrist freed him. the bullet
was for the assailant who charged him
with drawn sword, and the impetus Of
the gallop rolled over a third, and then
the narrow street was left behind, and
with his teeth clinched and the uncon-
scious oath still ringing between them,
with his breath coming unevenly, and
one hand dyed red from a cut, he was
out on the broad highway.
Behind the ring of hoofs dwindled
suddenly, then broke out with a louder,
fresher sound. a single horse followed
him on to the road. Behind it again
there came the sudden check, the re-
newed fall of boots, and again and
again. 1t bad puzzled him at first, but
he grasped its meaning in a moment.
They were changing their horses, leav-
ing their tired cattle behind and re.
Stunning the chase on fresh animals. 1t
turned the odds against him, he realized
with a sinking heart, and then with a
sudden fierce sense CT injury and a
freakisb pity and concern, not for him.
self or even the failure of his mission,
but for the game little mare. That she
should have struggled so gallantly on.
" to be beaten in the end by a fout of
fate!
GA scrrvy trick of the jade Fortune.
But we'll fight it to the end, my sweet
heart" he told her, and even now he
could not thinls of that end as a fore
gone conclusion. She was going so we'll.
The short rest had refreshed her, and
the sound Of the gallopiDg hoofs behind
excited her. His mood was illoglcally
compounded of hope and defiance. Sure
" in the end luck would .befriend him,
but if not to the devil with it. He
would conquer in spite of it. None the
less he felt a personal animus against
his pursuers which had been wanting
ND to nova sense of unfairneSs IN the
conditions of the struggle. There was q
harder set about his mouth, and the
light in his eyes was fiercely resentful
as we'll as determined. He remembered
with a certain savage satisfaction the
loss be had inflicted Oh the troopers,
aud told himself there would be more
bIoodshed before he was taken, and IN
the thought after awhile a logged good
humor came back to him.
Half an hour later he drew rein on
the spur Of a hill. The mare was breath
ing hard, and her coat was black with
sweat. Underneath it the veins stood
out like a network of ropes. She strained
at the reins, stretching her neck and
blowing through her nostrils. Her rider,
standing in his stirrups, threw impa-
tient chances over his shoulder and anx-
ious ones ahead. Some four miles off
a house stood boldly up above its clus-
tered trees, and toward it his looks were
directed. He had heard that it was &C.
cupied by a small troop of royalists,
and now it held his best hope Of safety.
He shortened the reins after a moment
or two and urged the mare forward.
The blue eyes were stern now, and he
rode with clinched teeth. He handel
the pistols rehectively for a moment,
looking over his shoulder, and then
slipped them back into the holster, hav-
ing satisfied himself that they were
loaded and in working order.
He broke into a gallop again on the
level.
Two miles over moorland i~nterspersed
with low scrub and stony ground on a
tired animal; but the troopers heavy
horses also were under the necessity of
picking their way. The distance re-
manned the same.
Then on a road, where the mare,
grateful for the change, went a trife
more freely at first. But the fresher
horses, breaking from the uneven
ground, seized and held their greater ad-
vantage-a mile, with the distance less
ening between them.
Then the tiny hamlet, o~vershadowed
by the house ON the hill. Up the steep
little street, saved from bullets by it's
windings-the mare beginning to roll
in her stride, yet still struggling Oh
across the village green, and there above
the wall the old park trees were leaning,