eat."

"You will be welcome to all you find."

"You impudent rebel, you see that you are here when we come. I know you,
you night raider, and will bring you to book yet. Forward men--trot!
Close up the rank there, sergeant; we'll take the road to the left."

I watched them go past, the dust-covered green uniforms slipping by the
crack of the door, as the men urged their horses faster. Farrell never
moved, the blue tobacco smoke curling above his head, and I stole across
the littered storeroom to a cobwebbed window, from which I could watch
the little column of riders go down the hill. They finally disappeared in
the edge of a grove, and I turned around to find the blacksmith leaning
against his anvil waiting for me.

"Genial young fellow, Grant," he said. "Always promising to hang me, but
never quite ready to tackle the job. Afraid I shall have to disappoint
him again, to-night."

"You will not wait for him?"

"Hardly. You heard what he said about Delavan? That was the very news I
wanted to learn. Now I think both those lads will meet me much sooner
than they expect."

He stepped forward into the open doorway, and blew three shrill blasts on
a silver whistle. The echo had scarcely died away, when, out from a thick
clump of trees perhaps half a mile distant, a horse shot forth, racing
toward us. As the reckless rider drew up suddenly, I saw him to be a