hances
are we shall have to fight both detachments. But fall to, man, an' we can
discuss all this as we eat."

He talked freely enough while we remained there, but conversation veered
to the book he had been reading, and I learned little of his plans,
except that he relied upon surprise, and swiftness of movement to
overcome the decided advantage of numbers. After we mounted and rode
away, scarcely a word was exchanged between us. I recall asking a
question or two, but his answers did not encourage any attempt at
probing, and I consequently fell silent, urging my horse in the effort to
keep pace with his heavier mount. We rode straight across the country,
avoiding the roads, and keeping under cover as much as possible, taking
advantage of every depression of the surface. Farrell knew every inch of
the way, and his watchful eyes scanned the summit of the ridges with
constant vigilance. Just before dusk we overtook a dozen horsemen in the
breaks of a creek bottom, roughly dressed fellows, heavily armed, riding
in the same direction as ourselves, and, after the exchange of a word or
two, the whole party of us jogged along together. Others straggled in,
singly, or by small groups, as darkness closed about, until we formed
quite a respectable company. It was rather a silent, weird procession,
scarcely a word being spoken, and no sound heard, other than the dull
reverberation of unshod hoofs on the soft turf. To me, glancing back from
where I held position beside Farrell, they seemed like spectral figures,
with no rattle of accoutrements, no glimmer of steel, no semblance of
uniform. Yet my heart warmed to the knowledge that these were no holiday
warriors, but grim fighting men. I had seen the faces, some boyish,
others graybeards, and had read in them all sternness of purpose. Each
hand gripped a brown rifle, and the fingers that met mine were rough and
hard from toil. No man among them had asked me a question; with Farrell's
simple statement there had come the hand-grip, the eyes looking straight
into my own; the silent acceptance of me as comrade. It all served to
drive into my consciousness the fact that these were men seeking nothing
for themselves, but ready to battle and die for the cause they had
espoused. They had left their ploughs in the furrow to strike a blow for
liberty.

It was an hour or more after dark when our compact little body of
horsemen rode down a gully into a broad creek bottom, and then advanced
th