eemed to
flow just above the soil in which their lower limbs moved sluggishly as
through stagnant water. As yet there was no indication of pursuit. But
Courtland felt that it was not abandoned. Indeed, he had barely time
to check an exclamation from the negro, before the dull gallop of
horse-hoofs in the open ahead of them was plain to them both. It was a
second party of their pursuers, mounted, who had evidently been sent
to prevent their final egress from the woods, while those they had just
evaded were no doubt slowly and silently following them on foot. They
were to be caught between two fires!

"What is there to the left of us?" whispered Courtland quickly.

"De swamp."

Courtland set his teeth together. His dull-witted companion had
evidently walked them both into the trap! Nevertheless, his resolve was
quickly made. He could already see through the thinning fringe of timber
the figures of the mounted men in the moonlight.

"This should be the boundary line of the plantation? This field beside
us is ours?" he said interrogatively.

"Yes," returned the negro, "but de quarters is a mile furder."

"Good! Stay here until I come back or call you; I'm going to talk to
these fellows. But if you value your life, don't YOU speak nor stir."

He strode quickly through the intervening trees and stepped out into the
moonlight. A suppressed shout greeted him, and half a dozen mounted
men, masked and carrying rifles, rode down towards him, but he remained
quietly waiting there, and as the nearest approached him, he made a step
forward and cried, "Halt!"

The men pulled up sharply and mechanically at that ring of military
imperiousness.

"What are you doing here?" said Courtland.

"We reckon that's OUR business, co'nnle."

"It's mine, when you're on property that I control."

The man hesitated and looked interrogatively towards his fellows. "I
allow you've got us there, co'nnle," he said at last with the lazy
insolence of conscious power, "but I don't mind telling you we're wanting
a nigger about the size of your Cato. We hain't got anything agin YOU,
co'nnle; we don't want to interfere with YOUR property, and YOUR ways,
but we don't calculate to have strangers interfere with OUR ways and
OUR customs. Trot out your nigger--you No'th'n folks don't call HIM
'property,' you know--and we'll clear off your land."

"And may I ask what you want of Cato?" said Courtland quietly.

"To show him that all the Federal law in