e, marching straight on.

"Halt, and give an account of yourselves!" shouted the patrol.

"We are peaceable citizens, if let alone," said Stackridge. "You'd
better not meddle with us."

The horsemen waited for them to pass, then, firing their pistols at the
fugitives, put spurs to their horses, and galloped away towards the
village.

"Don't fire!" cried Stackridge, as half a dozen pieces were levelled in
the darkness. "We've no ammunition to throw away, and no time to lose.
They'll give the alarm. Take straight to the mountains!"

Nobody had been hit. Turning aside from the road, they took their way
across the broad pasture lands that sloped upwards to the rocky hills.
The dark valley spread beneath them; on the other side rose the dim
outlines of the shadowy mountain range; over all spread a still,
cloudless sky, thick-strewn with glittering star-dust.

In the village, the ringing of bells startled the night with a wild
clamor. Stackridge laughed.

"They'll make noise enough now to wake Gad himself! But noise won't hurt
anybody. Hear the drums!"

"They are coming this way," said Penn.

"Fools, to set out in pursuit of us with drums beating!" said Captain
Grudd. "Very kind in them to give us notice! They should bring lighted
torches, too."

"Once in the mountains," said Stackridge, "we are safe. There we can
defend ourselves against a hundred. Other Union men will join us, or
bring us supplies. We ought to have made this move before; and I'm glad
we've been forced to it at last. If every Union man in the south had
made a bold stand in the beginning, this cursed rebellion never would
have got such a start."

Suddenly bells and drums were silent. "The less noise the more danger,"
said Stackridge. The way was growing difficult for the horse's feet. The
cow-paths, which it had been easy to follow at first, disappeared among
the thickets. At length, on the crest of a hill, the party halted to
rest.

"Daylight!" said Stackridge, turning his face to the east.

The sky was brightening; the shadows in the valley melted slowly away;
far off the cocks crew.

"Hark!" said the captain. "Do you hear anything?"

"I heard a woice!" said Carl.

"Hist!" said Penn. "Look yonder! there they come! around those bushes at
the foot of the oak!"

"Sure as fate, there they are!" said the captain.

The fugitives crowded to his side, eager, grasping their gunstocks, and
peering with intent eyes through the darkness in the d