boy had anticipated, but in
rolling it round the bit of his bridle.

"She will now go as long as there's breath in her body," said he,
putting the flesh-covered iron within her mouth.

The saddle being once more replaced, after champing a moment or two at
the bit, Bess began to snort and paw the earth, as if impatient of
delay; and, acquainted as he was with her indomitable spirit and power,
her condition was a surprise even to Dick himself. Her vigor seemed
inexhaustible, her vivacity was not a whit diminished, but, as she was
led into the open space, her step became as light and free as when she
started on her ride, and her sense of sound as quick as ever. Suddenly
she pricked her ears, and uttered a low neigh. A dull tramp was
audible.

"Ha!" exclaimed Dick, springing into his saddle; "they come."

"Who come, captain?" asked Ralph.

"The road takes a turn here, don't it?" asked Dick--"sweeps round to the
right by the plantations in the hollow?"

"Ay, ay, captain," answered Ralph; "it's plain you knows the ground."

"What lies behind yon shed?"

"A stiff fence, captain--a reg'lar rasper. Beyond that a hill-side steep
as a house, no oss as was ever shoed can go down it."

"Indeed!" laughed Dick.

A loud halloo from Major Mowbray, who seemed advancing upon the wings of
the wind, told Dick that he was discovered. The major was a superb
horseman, and took the lead of his party. Striking his spurs deeply into
his horse, and giving him bridle enough, the major seemed to shoot
forward like a shell through the air. The Burleigh Arms retired some
hundred yards from the road, the space in front being occupied by a neat
garden, with low, clipped edges. No tall timber intervened between Dick
and his pursuers, so that the motions of both parties were visible to
each other. Dick saw in an instant that if he now started he should come
into collision with the major exactly at the angle of the road, and he
was by no means desirous of hazarding such a rencontre. He looked
wistfully back at the double fence.

"Come into the stable. Quick, captain, quick!" exclaimed Ralph.

"The stable!" echoed Dick, hesitating.

"Ay, the stable; it's your only chance. Don't you see he's turning the
corner, and they are all coming? Quick, sir, quick!"

Dick, lowering his head, rode into the tenement, the door of which was
unceremoniously slapped in the major's face, and bolted on the other
side.

"Villain!" cried Major Mowbray, thunder