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Soldiers of Fortune by Richard Harding Davis
page 247 of 292 (84%)
back, but MacWilliams endeavored to vault in from the step, and
missing his footing fell under the hind wheel, so that the weight
of the carriage passed over him, and his head was buried for an
instant in the sand. But he was on his feet again before they
had noticed that he was down, and as he jumped for the hood,
Langham caught him by the collar of his coat and dragged him into
the seat, panting and gasping, and rubbing the sand from his
mouth and nostrils. Clay turned the carriage at a right angle
through the heavy sand, and still standing with Hope crouched at
his knees, he raced back to the woods into the face of the
firing, with the boys behind him answering it from each side of
the carriage, so that the horses leaped forward in a frenzy of
terror, and dashing through the woods, passed into the first road
that opened before them.

The road into which they had turned was narrow, but level, and
ran through a forest of banana palms that bent and swayed above
them. Langham and MacWilliams still knelt in the rear seat of
the carriage, watching the road on the chance of possible
pursuit.

``Give me some cartridges,'' said Langham. ``My belt is empty.
What road is this?''

``It is a private road, I should say, through somebody's banana
plantation. But it must cross the main road somewhere. It
doesn't matter, we're all right now. I mean to take it easy.''
MacWilliams turned on his back and stretched out his legs on the
seat opposite.

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