main we did
resolve the uncertainty; heard the orders passed from man to man, and
later saw a small feinting detachment split off to take the road for
Beattie's, whilst the main body held on for Macgowan's; all this before
we were discovered in the gloaming of the dawn by some of Tarleton's
men.

Then, I promise you, my dears, it was neck or nothing, with the devil to
take the hindmost. Away we sped toward the near-by river, spurring our
wearied beasts as men who ride for life, with a dozen troopers so close
upon us that when I glanced over my shoulder the foremost of the redcoat
riders was having his face well bespattered with the mud from my horse's
heels.

'Twas touch and go, but happily, as I have said, the river was at hand.
We came to the high bank some hundred yards above the fording place, and
lacking Dick's example to shame me to the braver course, I fear I should
have recoiled at the brink. But when the lad sent his horse without the
missing of a bound far out over the eddying flood, I shook the reins on
the sorrel's neck, gave him the word and shut my eyes.

After all, it was nothing worse than a cold plunge, with a few pistol
bullets to spatter harmlessly around us when we came up for air.
Moreover, there were the camp-fires of Davidson's men on the farther
bank to encourage us; and so swimming and wading by turns we got across
in time to give the alarum.

As you would guess, there was a mighty stir on our side of the river
when we had splashed ashore and got our news well born. As it turned
out, General Davidson's main camp was a good half-mile back from the
river in one of the outfields of Appleby Hundred. So it chanced there
were upon the spot only brave Joe Graham and his fifty riflemen to
dispute the passage of an army.

What was done at Macgowan's Ford in the gray of the morning of February
first, 1781, has become a page in our history. But I protest that not
any of the chroniclers do even-handed justice to the little band of
patriot riflemen doing their utmost to hold a hundred-to-one
outnumbering host in check.

'Twas a fine sight, be the onlooker Whig or Tory. The Guards, led by
the fiery Irishman, O'Hara, took the water first, the men crowding
shoulder to shoulder to brace against the sweep of the current which, on
the western side of the stream, was little less than a mill-tail for
swiftness. After them came the foot and horse in solid squares, and
always with more to follow. None the less