e
was riding with Delmonte, with the Star of Horsemen. He was saving her
life. They had ridden so before, often and often; only now--

_Pah!_ a short, sharp report was heard, and a little dust whiffed up on
the road beside them. _Pah! pah!_ another puff of dust, and splinters
flew from a tree just beyond them. Aquila twitched his ears and
stretched his long neck, and they felt the stride quicken under them.
The road rushed by; they were half-way to the turn.

"Would you like to hold the reins for a bit?" asked Delmonte. "It isn't
really necessary, but--thanks! that's very nice."

What was he doing? He had turned half round in the saddle; something
touched her hair--the butt of his carbine. "I _beg_ your pardon!" said
Captain Jack. "I am very clumsy, I fear."

_Crack!_ went the carbine. Rita's ears rang with the noise; she held the
reins mechanically, only half-conscious of herself. _Pah! pah!_ and
again _crack!_ The blue rifle-smoke was in her eyes and nostrils, the
Mauser bullets pattered like hail on the road; and still Aquila galloped
on, never turning his head, never slackening his mighty stride, and
still the road rushed by, and the turn by the hill grew nearer--nearer--

_Pah!_ Rita felt her companion wince. His left arm relaxed its hold and
dropped at his side. With his right hand he carefully replaced his
carbine in its sling.

"For life, Aquila!" he said softly, in Spanish; and once more Aquila
gathered his great limbs under him, and once more the terrible pace
quickened.

A stone? a hole in the road? who knows? In a moment they were all down,
horse and riders flung in a heap together. The horse struggled to his
knees, then fell again. He screamed, an agonising sound, that in Rita's
excited mind seemed to mingle with the smoke and the dust in a cloud of
horror. Every moment she expected to feel the iron hoofs crashing into
her, as the frenzied creature struggled to regain his footing.

Delmonte had sprung clear, and in an instant he was at Rita's side,
raising her. "You are hurt? no? good! keep behind me, please."

He went to the horse, and tried to lift him, bent to examine him, and
then shook his head. Aquila would not rise again; his leg was shattered.
Delmonte straightened himself and looked about him. If this had happened
a hundred, fifty yards back! but now the woods were gone, and on either
hand stretched a bare savannah, broken only by the hateful barbed wire
fences. He drew his revolver quiet