rrying a thrust of one of the men,
Oswald cut him down; while Roger, with a tremendous blow from his
staff, stretched the other man on the road.

"Ride on, girls! We will follow you," Oswald shouted.

Jessie was sitting behind John, and they and Janet dashed forward, and
rode into the water. Oswald and Roger followed, as six men, armed with
spear and sword, ran out from the house. Seeing that they were too
late, the leader shouted to the others: "Fetch out the horses, and
chase them!" and, before the party had gained the opposite bank, their
pursuers dashed into the water.

"Don't press your horses too hardly," Oswald said, as they galloped
along. "They are too close behind us for us to get help from any of the
small villages, but they dare not follow us into Longtown, and we have
barely a ten miles' ride."

They had some two hundred yards' start, and for the first four miles
held their own; then their pursuers began to gain upon them. One of the
horses was carrying double, and Roger and Oswald were both heavier than
any of the moss troopers.

"We shall have a fight for it, Roger."

"That is just what I was thinking, master. Well, there are three of us;
and, as there are only six of them, we ought not to have much trouble.
John will be a match for one. Methinks you and I can each make short
work of a man when they first come up; and with but three of them
against two, it will be mere child's play."

The road was a narrow one, and little used; and, when they came to the
foot of a sharp rise, Oswald called to those ahead to stop.

"Jump down, Jessie, and mount behind Janet, and ride on ahead. We will
soon get rid of these fellows. Be quick!"

The moss troopers were now but seventy or eighty yards behind.

"I shall fight on foot," Roger said, as he leapt off his horse. "I want
both hands, for this staff."

Turning his horse, and bidding John to do the same, Oswald reined back
his animal three or four lengths; and when the Bairds' party were
within twenty yards, touched it with his spur and dashed at them,
meeting them just abreast of Roger. The first man he met thrust at him
with his spear, but Oswald parried with his sword, and with a
back-handed blow smote the man just under the chin, and he fell with a
crash from his horse. At the same moment he heard a blow like that of a
smith's hammer, as Roger's staff fell upon the steel cap of the first
who attacked him.

John was less fortunate, for his opponent's s