hat months and not
years had rolled over his head during that time.

"Not bad, not bad! Well done for a young cockerel! Ah, we shall
make a man of you, Tom! It is in your blood, I can see well!"

Such were the comments of Captain Jack as he heard the tale; and
Tom spoke with an unconscious pride in his own daring, which
plainly betokened an undaunted spirit and a thirst after more
adventure and distinction.

Angry and hot against those who had "driven him forth," as he
called it, reckless of consequences, with boundless self
confidence, he was just the tool fit for the hand of Captain Jack,
who patted him upon the back in a friendly fashion, and said:

"Yes, yes, Tom, you shall learn how to take toll. We will have
another story of Tom Tufton's Toll ere we part company. There are
good men enough amid the bands that infest these forest glades--men
suffering unjustly, men falsely accused, men who have broken from
those noisome prisons, which breed disease and death, and who would
sooner put a bullet through their head than return to the filth and
degradation of such a life. Ah, it is the hardness of the laws
which drives men to be freebooters on the road! The rich may fatten
and batten, rob, cheat, bleed their fellows to death; but let one
of us lesser men dare to lay hands upon their fat purses, full of
other men's gold, and we are branded as felons, and pay the ransom
with our lives! That is not justice. That is not to be borne
patiently. I tell you, Tom, that I have seen enough of the
injustice of the law to turn my heart to molten metal and my blood
to gall. We want fellows of your mould to wage the war and win the
victory. The day may come when you will win for yourself a great
name, and shine forth upon the world admired, courted, feared--even
like Lord Claud!"

A thrill of gratified vanity ran through Tom's frame. He threw to
the winds the last scruple of conscience. He flung back his head
and set his teeth.

"Ride on--I follow!" he cried, in a strange, hoarse voice; "I
follow unto the world's end!"

So side by side the two men vanished into the deep gloom of the
forest; and Captain Jack led his companion to one of those secret
haunts of his own, where no pursuing foot had ever yet penetrated.
Tom drew a long breath as of relief, feeling that here at least he
was safe.

And yet, when he sought to compose himself to rest after all the
excitements of the past four-and-twenty hours, he found himself
unable