s a
mystery to me."

"If I had had Ceph I could have jumped after him," answered Deck, and a
pang of regret shot through his heart, as he realized what a great help
noble Ceph had been to him. "Clefton, you run to the right and I will
run to the left. Sanford, you keep on straight ahead. Unless he knows
those woods thoroughly, he'll be bothered to find a path, and will have
to turn in one direction or another."

By the time Major Lyon had ceased speaking, Vallingham had gained the
first of the cedars. He struck the woods at a spot where the ground was
very uneven, and turned to the left,--the direction Deck had assigned to
himself.

Ordinarily it is impossible for a man on foot to catch up with a running
horse, although the man may be able to overtake the horse in the course
of two or three days' running, if the man is a trained runner. But
Captain Vallingham had to move along with a certain amount of caution,
for if his steed went down into a hole and broke a leg, the game would
be up. Being closer to the ground, Deck could see fairly well, and he
came along without slacking his speed.

The major was within a hundred feet of the Confederate, and was on the
point of calling upon him to halt, when Vallingham slipped behind the
first growth of cedars and out of sight.

"This way, boys!" called Deck, and made for the spot, with Clefton and
Sanford not over two hundred feet away. There was a small brook to
cross, and he came into the woods over some uncovered roots of trees and
amid a mass of half-rotted leaves and pine needles and cones.

"Captain Vallingham, you might as well give up!" he called out. "You
cannot escape."

"Follow me at your peril!" came back in a determined voice. "I am not
unarmed, as you suppose."

This reply startled Deck, but in a moment he made up his mind that the
Confederate was bluffing, and he did not slacken his speed. Clefton
called to him, and he ordered both sharpshooters to come into the woods
with him.

There was a road through the cedars, starting from a point to the north
of where Vallingham had entered. Toward this road the Confederate now
pressed, with Deck at his heels, trying to get a shot, but balked by the
trees and the darkness. More than once, the major went down, and he
wondered how the escaping prisoner could keep in the saddle.

As a matter of fact, Vallingham had dismounted, and was leading his
steed for the road. He was armed, as he had intimated, but his weapon