raham's men,
and the king's muskets, silent hitherto, began to roar and belch by
platoon and volley fire. Jennifer craned his neck and took a swift view
of the situation.

"By the Lord Harry!" he cried, "'tis high time Joe Graham was getting
his lads in order for a foot race. Once those fellows come ashore
they'll play hare and hounds with us to the king's taste. Keep your eye
on the nags, Jack. It may chance us to do what two men can to cover a
belated retreat."

We had tethered our horses in a thicket of scrub oak where they would be
out of bullet-reach until the enemy gained the bank. As I looked to make
sure of them, the sorrel gave a shrill neigh to welcome the pounding of
hoofs on the Appleby road. I made sure this would be General Davidson
bringing in the reserves; and so, indeed, it was; but he came too late.
O'Hara's men were already climbing the bank; and Joe Graham was rallying
his little company for flight in the face of an onset that made the tree
fringe sing with musket balls.

"'Tis our cue to run away!" Dick shouted, dragging me to my feet. "To
the horses!"

But now we were too late. Davidson's men were between us and the scrub
oak thicket, and we must wait till the column swept by.

Dick swore fervently and put his face to the foe and his back to a
tree. Whereupon I dragged him down as promptly as he had just now
dragged me up, telling him his broadsword would make but a poor shift
parrying musket-balls.

What followed after was over and done with in a dozen fluttering
heart-beats. Seeing the case was desperate, General Davidson gathered
Graham's fifty into his flying column, flogged his rear into the
retreat, and was pitched out of his saddle by a Tory rifle-bullet whilst
he was doing it. And when the way to our horses was clear of the
galloping Carolinians, and we would have run to mount and ride after
them, the swarming redcoat van was upon us.

"Up with you and out of this!" cried Jennifer, setting me the example.
"We must e'en gallop as we can. Quick, man!"

But in the gathering and the retreat our old sharpshooter under his
holly bush had been left behind; and now we heard him again, chanting
his terrible imprecations on the enemy.

Dick saw the meaning in my look, and together we pounced to drag the old
man out of hiding. When we burst down upon him, Yeates had his piece to
his face and was drawing a bead on a stout man in cocked hat and plain
regimentals whose horse was curveting and