prise. "We saw
nobody on that road. When did the man arrive?"

"About an hour before you. He came at full speed, with his horse--a
great, black, snorting beast seventeen hands high at least--all in a
foam. He was first for passing by without stopping, but we challenged
him and brought him short upon his haunches, and then he told us he was
in a hurry, and mustn't be delayed."

"What kind of a looking man was he?" inquired Habershaw.

"A jolly fellow," replied the lieutenant: "almost as big as his horse. A
good civil fellow, too, that swigs well at a canteen. He made a joke of
the matter about your coming up, and called you old Cat-o'-nine
tails--said that you were the cat, and your nine tag-rags were the
tails--ha, ha ha!"

"Blast the bastard!" exclaimed Habershaw; "who could he be?"

"Why we asked that, but he roared out with a great haw-haw--took another
drink, and said he was never christened."

"You should, as a good soldier," said Habershaw, "have made him give his
name."

"I tried him again, and he would only let us have a nickname; he told us
then that he was called Jack-o'-Lantern, and had a special good stomach,
and that if we wanted more of him we must give him a snatch of something
to eat. Well, we did so. After that, he said he must have our landlord's
sword, for his own had been torn from him by the Whig troopers that
pushed him so hard, and that the bill for it must be sent to Cruger. So
he got the old cheese-knife that used to hang over the fire-place and
strung it across his shoulder. He laughed so hard, and seemed so
good-natured, that there was no doing anything with him. At last he
mounted his horse again, just stooped down and whispered in my ear at
parting, that he was an old friend of yours, and that you could tell us
all the news, and away he went, like a mad bully, clinking it over the
hill at twenty miles to the hour."

"A black horse did you say?" inquired Habershaw. "Had he a white star in
the forehead, and the two hind legs white below the knee?"

"Exactly," said the lieutenant and several others of the party.

"It was Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Habershaw, "by all the black
devils!"

"Horse Shoe, Horse Shoe, to be sure!" responded half a dozen voices.

"He was a famous good rider, Horse Shoe or anybody else," said the
lieutenant.

"That beats all!" said one of the troopers; "the cunning old fox! He
told the truth when he said you would tell the news, captain: but to
thin