d his companion to the
imminent perils that encompassed them, and prompted them to the exercise
of the strictest vigilance. Like discreet and trusty soldiers, they
pursued their way with the most unwavering courage, confident that the
difficulty of retreat was fully equal to that of the advance.

CHAPTER XVI.

TORY TROOPERS, A DARK ROAD AND A FRAY.

"By the whiskers of the Grand Turk, I have got the four points on you,
bully Buff! High, low, jack and the game!" exclaimed Peppercorn.

"You have luck enough to worry out the nine lives of a cat. That's an
end to Backbiter, the best horse 'twixt Pedee and the Savannah. So,
blast me, if I play any more with you! There, send the cards to hell!"
roared out Hugh Habershaw, rising and throwing the pack into the fire.

It was just at the closing in of night, when a party of
ruffianly-looking men were assembled beneath a spreading chestnut, that
threw forth its aged arms over a small gravelly hillock, in the depths
of the forest that skirted the northern bank of the Pacolet, within a
short distance of Grindall's ford. The spot had all the qualities of a
secret fastness. It was guarded on one side by the small river, and on
the other by a complicated screen of underwood, consisting principally
of those luxuriantly plaited vines which give so distinct a character to
the southern woodland. The shrubbery, immediately along the bank of the
river, was sufficiently open to enable a horseman to ride through it
down to the road which, at about two hundred paces off, led into the
ford.

The group who now occupied this spot consisted of some ten or twelve men
under the command of Hugh Habershaw. Their appearance was half rustic
and half military; some efforts at soldierly costume were visible in the
decoration of an occasional buck-tail set in the caps of several of the
party, and, here and there, a piece of yellow cloth forming a band for
the hat. Some wore long and ungainly deer-skin pantaloons and moccasins
of the same material; and two or three were indued with coats of coarse
homespun, awkwardly garnished with the trimmings of a British uniform.
All were armed, but in the same irregular fashion. There were rifles to
be seen stacked against the trunk of the tree; most of the men wore
swords, which were of different lengths and sizes; and some of the gang
had a horseman's pistol bestowed conspicuously about their persons.
Their horses were attached to the drooping ends of th