eins in both hands, braced his feet against the dashboard, and leaned
far back in his seat. The horses seemed literally to disappear beneath
our feet; the wagon went down head foremost with a lunge, there was a
sudden jerk and great splashing and snorting, followed by a complete
cessation of noise from the wheels, and a gentle swaying to and fro of
the wagon. We were crossing the ford with the water breast high on the
horses.

"'I'm always glad when that ford is behind me,' said Louis to me, when
we were again driving on quietly through the valley.

"'Why?' said I; 'for there's another ford in front of us still.'

"'Oh, the South Fork is nothing, but the Big Sugar is treacherous. I've
known it rise twenty feet in two hours, and once I was water-bound on
the other side for eleven days, unable to ford it. Emily would have gone
out of her mind with anxiety, for the country was very disturbed at the
time, only one of our neighbours, who saw me camping there, rode down to
the house, and told her where I was, but, all the same----Hold! what's
that?'

"I didn't scream; I couldn't, for my heart almost stopped beating with
terror.

"'Take the reins,' said Louis, in a quick whisper.

"I took hold of them as firmly as I could, but a pair of kittens could
have run away with us, my hands trembled so. Louis got out his revolver;
I heard click, click, click, in his hand, and then in the faint light I
saw the gleam of steel.

"'Halt! Who goes there?' called Louis, in a voice of thunder. I never
heard his soldier-voice before, for ordinarily he speaks in a melodious
baritone; and I then quite understood what Emily meant when she told me
how his voice was heard above the din of battle, cheering his men on for
the last charge at Gettysburg. I strained my eyes to see what it was,
and there in front of us, not fifteen yards away, on the side of the
road, I saw a man seated on horseback standing motionless, his right arm
stretching forward, aiming straight towards us.

[Sidenote: Two Pistol-shots]

"Two livid tongues of flame darted from beside me--two quick reports of
pistol-shots rang on the night air, then all was still. I felt the
horses quiver, for the motion was communicated to me by the reins I held
in my hands, but they were admirably trained animals, and did not move
to the right or the left, only the younger one, a bay filly, snorted
loudly. Louis sat silent and motionless, his revolver still pointing at
the highwayman.