last? A cautious step forward, a low laugh from the Sergeant, and we
circle the gaunt, blackened stump, as silent ourselves as the night
about us, but with fiercely beating, expectant hearts.

But hark! Surely that was no common sound, born of that drear
loneliness! No cavalryman can mistake the jingle of accoutrements or
the dull thud of horses' hoofs. The road here must have curved sharply,
for they were already so close upon us that, almost simultaneously with
the sound, we could distinguish the deeper shadow of a small, compact
body of horsemen directly in our front. To left of us there rose, sheer
and black, the precipitous rock; to right we might not even guess what
yawning void. It was either wit or sword-play now.

I know not how it may be with others in such emergencies, but with me
it always happens that the sense of fear departs with the presence of
actual danger. Before the gruesome fancies of imagination I may quake
and burn like any maiden alone upon a city street at night, until each
separate nerve becomes a very demon of mental agony; but when the real
and known once fairly confronts me, and there is work to do, I grow
instantly cool to think, resolute to act, and find a rare joy in it. It
was so now, and, revolver in hand but hidden beneath my holster flap, I
leaned over and touched Craig's arm.

"Keep quiet," I whispered sternly. "Let them challenge first, and no
firing except on my order."

Almost with the words there came the sharp hail:

"Halt! Who comes there?"