dvanced if I had wished it; in broad day the fence
would have been barely practicable. I spoke those exact words in a tone
purposely measured and calm, so that they should not be mistaken by our
assailants: I have good reason to remember them, for they were the last
I ever uttered on American ground as a free agent. They had hardly
passed my lips, when a rifle cracked; I felt a dull numbing blow inside
my left knee, and a sensation as if hot sealing-wax was trickling there;
at the same instant, Falcon dropped under me--without a start or
struggle, or sound besides a horrible choking sob--shot right through
the jugular vein.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ROAD TO AVERNUS.

Before I had struggled clear of my horse, Shipley's hand was on my
shoulder, and his hurried whisper in my ear.

"What shall we do? Will you surrender?"

Now, though I knew already that I had escaped with a flesh-wound from a
spent bullet, I felt that I could not hope to make quick tracks that
night. Certain reasons--wholly independent of personal convenience--made
me loth to part with my saddle-bags; besides this, I own I shrank from
the useless ignominy of being hunted down like a wild beast on the
mountains. So I answered, rather impatiently:

"What the deuce would you have one do--with a dead horse and a lamed
leg? Shift for yourself as well as you can."

Without another word I walked towards the party in our front, with an
impulse I cannot now define; it could scarcely have been seriously
aggressive, for a hunting-knife was my solitary weapon; but for one
moment I _was_ idiot enough to regret my lost revolver, I was traveling
as a neutral and civilian, with no other object than my private ends;
the slaughter of an American citizen, on his own ground, would have been
simply murder, both by moral and martial law, and I heard afterwards
that our Legation could not have interfered to prevent condign
punishment. But reason is dumb sometimes, when the instincts of the "old
Adam" are speaking. I suppose I am not more truculent than my fellows;
but since then, in all calmness and sincerity, I have thanked God for
sparing me one strong temptation.

Before I had advanced ten paces the same voice challenged again.

"Stop where you are--if you come a step nearer, I'll shoot."

I was in no mood to listen to argument, much less to an absurd threat.

"You may shoot and be d----d," I said. "You've got the shooting all your
own way to-night. I carry no f