we going on, sah?" he said as, having learned the lesson, he
handed the pistol back to Vincent.

"We are not going on until the evening, Dan. When it gets dark the lady
is going to take us to a place where there is a boat hidden, and we
shall then be able to cross the river."

"Den I will hab a sleep, sah. Noting like sleeping when there is a
chance."

"I believe you could sleep three-quarters of your time, Dan. However,
you may as well sleep now if you can, for there will be nothing to do
till night."

Vincent went back to the edge of the wood, and sat down where he could
command a view of the cottage. The country was for the most part covered
with wood, for it was but thinly inhabited except in the neighborhood of
the main roads. Few of the farmers had cleared more than half their
ground; many only a few acres. The patch, in which the house with its
little clump of trees stood nearly in the center, was of some forty or
fifty acres in extent, and though now rank with weeds, had evidently
been carefully cultivated, for all the stumps had been removed, and the
fence round it was of a stronger and neater character than that which
most of the cultivators deemed sufficient.

Presently he heard the sound of horses' feet in the forest behind him,
and he made his way back to a road which ran along a hundred yards from
the edge of the wood. He reached it before the horseman came up, and lay
down in the underwood a few yards back. In a short time two horsemen
came along at a walking pace.

"I call this a fool's errand altogether," one of them said in a
grumbling tone. "We don't know that they have headed this way; and if
they have, we might search these woods for a month without finding
them."

"That's so," the other said; "but Mullens has set his heart on it, and
we must try for another day or two. My idea is that when the fellow
heard what sort of a chap Mullens was, he took the train back that night
and went up North again."

Vincent heard no more, but it was enough to show him that a sharp hunt
was being kept up for him; and although he had no fear of being caught
in the woods, he was well pleased at the thought that he would soon be
across the water and beyond the reach of his enemy. He went back again
to the edge of the clearing and resumed his watch. It was just getting
dusk, and he was about to join Dan when he saw a party of twelve men
ride out from the other side of the wood and make toward the house.
Fille