His answer was prompt and to the point. "To press on afoot through the
forest till we come to the York settlement; then to borrow a pair of
Tory horses and ride like gentlemen. Are you game for it?"

I hesitated. "I see no great risk in all this, and whatever the hazard,
'tis less for one than for two. You'd best go alone, Richard."

He saw my meaning; that I would stand aside and let him be her succor if
she needed help. But he would not have it so.

"No," he said, doggedly. "We'll go together, and she shall choose
between us for a champion, if she is in the humor to honor either of us.
That is what 'twill come to in the end; and I warn you fairly, John
Ireton, I shall neither give nor take advantage in this strife. I said
last night that I would stand aside, but that I can not--not till she
herself says the killing word with her own lips."

"And that word will be--?"

"That she loves another man. Come; let us be at it; we should be well
out of this before the plantation people are astir."




XIX

HOW A STUMBLING HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS