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The ascent was steeper now Our horses slackened to a canter, to a trot, then to a walk as the road rose upward, set with boulders and loose stones

I had just turned to cautionahead to a deep washout which left but a narrow path between two jutting boulders, when, without the slightest sound, fro brown rifles leveled And in silence we drew bridle at the voiceless order fro upon us without a tremor

An instant of suspense; the rifle of the shorter felloept from Elsin Grey to me; and I,horse, whose wise head and questioning ears reconnoitered these strange people who checked us at the rocky sue, silent folk, clothed in doeskin fro-shirts, belted in with scarlet wa in soft cascades fro the laced sea, and Elsin's restiveacross their line of fire

"Rein in,voice--"and you, sir! Stand fast there! Now, young man, from which party do you come?"

"From the lower," I answered cheerfully, "and happy to be clear of theay cock o' the woods?"

"With the upper party, friend"

"Friend!" sneered the taller felloering his rifle and casting it into the hollow of his left arm "It strikes me that you are so forward, a giant in his soft, clinging buckskins, talking all the while in an irritable voice: "Friend? Maybe, and s don't hatch into dickey-birds, nor do all rattlers beat the long roll" He laid a sudden hand oninition

"Gad-a-hted; "is it you, Mr Renault?"

"It surely is," I said, drawing a long breath of relief to find in these same forest-runners my two drovers, Mount and the little Weasel

"How far is it to the lines, friend Mount?"

"Not far, not very far, Mr Renault," he said "There should be a post of Jersey militia this side o' Valentine's, and we're like to see a brace of Sheldon's dragoons at any moment Lord, sir, but I'm contented to see you, for I was loath to leave you in York, and Walter Butler there untethered, ranging the streets, free as a panther on a sunset cliff!"