self forward and down. The
gun roared harmlessly as Rosk, startled, tugged on the trigger. Revel
went up to stab for the man's belly, but a warning tremor of the ground
gave him pause; a stallion was thundering down on him from the left. He
flicked a glance at it. A great roan, with the Lady Nirea up, and coming
straight for him.

She would run him down? He bared angry teeth--but she was going to miss
him! She was galloping between him and Rosk! She was....

_She was stretching down a hand to him, her face twisted with hope and
fear and--friendship!_

* * * * *

Instinctively he slapped her wrist with his palm as she hurtled past,
jerked his legs up and was carried off by the rocketing roan. As he
writhed into the saddle behind her, she screamed.

"Help, oh help! He has attacked me!"

The bi--no, the clever girl, by Orbs! Helping him, she was yet saving
her own reputation and life, making it seem that he had leaped astride
her mount as she was carried by him. No squire could have seen that
helping hand, for they were all on the opposite side of her. A vast
hullabaloo went up from their ranks.

"Throw me off, you fool," she hissed at him, twisting round and
pretending to strike him. "Throw me off!"

He reached past her, hauled on the reins, brought the animal back on its
heels, pitched her off unceremoniously, winked broadly at her and found
time for a leer as her riding skirt hoisted unladylike as she sat up;
then he rammed heels to the brute and was off on a run for his life.
Guns banged behind him, slugs tore the air inches from his bowed back.
Let 'em shoot, curse them, he had a chance now!

The cliff of reed-laced muck dwindled, and he turned the roan and leaped
him up to the higher level of ground. Then he turned and went charging
back the way he had come, quick eyes searching for his comrade.

"Jerran! Jerran, you scuttling mouse, where are you?"

_Bang_ went a musket.

"Here, Revel!" The little straw-colored man popped out of a bush in his
path. He bent as Nirea had, gave the rebel a hand up behind him. Then he
swerved the horse and went off through the oaks, while the gentry cursed
and raved and came after as best they could.

"Discomfortable riding, this, without pants. Ouch! Where shall we head,
ancient one?" Revel asked grimly.

"The way we're going. There, see that hill? Up and over that, and we're
on a straight path for the forests of Kamden."

Revel was jol