hose hands were bound
with cords, and who made Mark stare, suddenly started to his side,
shouting:

"Ride for it! ride! You are in a trap."

There was no time for hesitation. Two men dashed after the prisoner
they had made, and in another instant they would have had him, but for
Mark's quick movement. He caught his sister's rein, touched his horse's
side with the spurs, and the two active animals sprang between the men
and their quarry as they were sharply turned.

"Lay hold of my nag's mane, Darley," he shouted to the prisoner, who
held up his bound hands, and caught at the dense mass of hair,
succeeding in holding on, while Mark now drew his sword.

"Oh Mark!" cried his sister, "is there any danger?"

"Not if you sit fast," he cried.--"Can you keep up if we canter?"

"Try," said the prisoner excitedly. "If not, go on, and save
yourselves."

The horses broke into a sharp canter, keeping well together, as the men
they had seen following them with drawn swords, and joined up across the
narrow way, shouted to them to stop.

Mark's reply to this was a yell of defiance.

"Sit fast, Mary," he cried. "They must go down before your horse."

The girl made no answer, but crouched lower in her saddle, as they rode
on, Mark in his excitement pressing home his spurs, and causing his
horse to make a frantic leap. But there was no collision; the men
leaped off to right and left to avoid the charge, and the next moment
they were behind.

"Well done!" cried Mark excitedly. "Well done, six! Ah!--Here, canter
on, Mary. I'll soon overtake you."

He checked and turned his own steed, to dash back, for he had suddenly
found that the bound given when he used his spurs was too much for Ralph
Darley's hold on the mane, and he had turned, to see the lad lying in
the track with the men about to seize him and drag him away.

Without a moment's hesitation, Mark charged at the enemy again, and as
they fled he chased them, sword in hand, for some little distance before
once more turning to rejoin Ralph, who had struggled to his feet, ready
to cling once more to the horse's mane, a task made more easy by Mark
cutting through the bonds with his sword.

Mary was waiting a little farther back, and the trio had to go back some
distance to reach a fresh track across country, the enemy making no sign
of pursuit, but getting on with their plunder.

"They completely deceived me," Ralph told his companions. "I took them
for carrier