n?"

"He was two days ago. He'd been up to Louisville where the Southern
leaders had a meetin', but couldn't make things go as they wanted 'em
to go, an' so he come back to Pendleton. People are tellin' that he's
goin' to Frankfort soon."

Harry thanked him, threw his saddle bags across the horse, a powerful
bay, and, giving a final wave of his hand to the sympathetic liveryman,
rode away. He had little fear. He carried a pair of heavy
double-barreled pistols in holsters, and a smaller weapon in his pocket.
The horse, as he soon saw, was of uncommon power and spirit and he
snapped his fingers at Skelly and his gang.

He rode first at a long, easy walk, knowing too well to push hard at
the beginning, and the afternoon passed without anything worthy of his
notice save the loneliness of the road. In the two hours before sundown
he met less than half a dozen persons. All were men, and with a mere
nod they went on quickly, regarding him with suspicion. This was not
the fashion of a year ago, when they exchanged a friendly word or two,
but Harry knew its cause. Now nobody could trust anybody else.

The setting sun was uncommonly red, tinting all the forest with a fiery
glow and Harry looked apprehensively at the line of blue hills now on
his right, whence danger had come before. But he saw nothing that moved
there. No signal lights twinkled. The intervening space was a mass of
heavy green foliage, which the eye, now that the twilight was at hand,
could penetrate only a few score yards. A northeast wind off the
distant mountain tops was cold and sharp, and Harry, who wore no
overcoat, shivered a little.

Young though he was, he remembered the liveryman's caution, and he
watched the forest on either side, as well as he could. But he depended
more upon his keenness of ear. He did not believe the stirring of any
large force in the thickets could pass him unheard, and, having nursed
the strength of his great horse, he felt that he could leave almost any
pursuit far behind.

The twilight sank into a dark and heavy night. The moon and stars lay
behind drifting clouds and, now and then, came a swish of cold rain.
Harry was not able to see more than a few yards to right or left,
when the road ran through the woods, as it did most of the time, and
not much further when fields chanced to lie on either side.

He was within a mile of Pendleton, and his heart began to throb, not
with thoughts of Skelly, but because h