were
gone, and Zachary Palmer was able to tell me whither. I made up my mind,
therefore, that I would out into the world also. To this end I borrowed
a sword from Solomon Sprent, and my father having gone to Gosport,
I helped myself to the best nag in his stables--for I have too much
respect for the old man to allow one of his flesh and blood to go
ill-provided to the wars. All day I have ridden, since early morning,
being twice stopped on suspicion of being ill-affected, but having the
good luck to get away each time. I knew that I was close at your heels,
for I found them searching for you at the Salisbury Inn.'

Decimus whistled. 'Searching for us?' said he.

'Yes. It seems that they had some notion that ye were not what ye
professed to be, so the inn was surrounded as I passed, but none knew
which road ye had taken.'

'Said I not so?' cried Saxon. 'That young viper hath stirred up the
regiment against us. We must push on, for they may send a party on our
track.'

'We are off the main road now, 'I remarked; 'even should they pursue us,
they would be unlikely to follow this side track.'

'Yet it would be wise to show them a clean pair of heels,' said Saxon,
spurring his mare into a gallop. Lockarby and I followed his example,
and we all three rode swiftly along the rough moorland track.

We passed through scattered belts of pinewood, where the wild cat howled
and the owl screeched, and across broad stretches of fenland and moor,
where the silence was only broken by the booming cry of the bittern or
the fluttering of wild duck far above our heads. The road was in parts
overgrown with brambles, and was so deeply rutted and so studded with
sharp and dangerous hollows, that our horses came more than once upon
their knees. In one place the wooden bridge which led over a stream had
broken down, and no attempt had been made to repair it, so that we were
compelled to ride our horses girth deep through the torrent. At first
some scattered lights had shown that we were in the neighbourhood of
human habitations, but these became fewer as we advanced, until the last
died away and we found ourselves upon the desolate moor which stretched
away in unbroken solitude to the shadowy horizon. The moon had broken
through the clouds and now shone hazily through wreaths of mist,
throwing a dim light over the wild scene, and enabling us to keep to
the track, which was not fenced in in any way and could scarce be
distinguished from th