g water we might put them off our track.'

'My horse cannot hold on at this pace for more than a very few minutes,'
Reuben cried. 'If I break down, do ye go on, for ye must remember
that they are upon your track and not mine. They have found cause for
suspicion of the two strangers of the inn, but none of me.'

'Nay, Reuben, we shall stand or fall together,' said I sadly, for at
every step his horse grew more and more feeble. 'In this darkness they
will make little distinction between persons.'

'Keep a good heart,' shouted the old soldier, who was now leading us by
twenty yards or more. 'We can hear them because the wind blows from that
way, but it's odds whether they have heard us. Methinks they slacken in
their pursuit.'

'The sound of their horses has indeed grown fainter,' said I joyfully.

'So faint that I can hear it no longer,' my companion cried.

We reined up our panting steeds and strained our ears, but not a
sound could we hear save the gentle murmur of the breeze amongst the
whin-bushes, and the melancholy cry of the night-jar. Behind us the
broad rolling plain, half light and half shadow, stretched away to
the dim horizon without sign of life or movement. 'We have either
outstripped them completely, or else they have given up the chase,' said
I. 'What ails the horses that they should tremble and snort?'

'My poor beast is nearly done for,' Reuben remarked, leaning forward and
passing his hand down the creature's reeking neck.

'For all that we cannot rest,' said Saxon. 'We may not be out of danger
yet. Another mile or two may shake us clear. But I like it not.'

'Like not what?'

'These horses and their terrors. The beasts can at times both see and
hear more than we, as I could show by divers examples drawn from mine
own experience on the Danube and in the Palatinate, were the time and
place more fitting. Let us on, then, before we rest.'

The weary horses responded bravely to the call, and struggled onwards
over the broken ground for a considerable time. At last we were thinking
of pulling up in good earnest, and of congratulating ourselves upon
having tired out our pursuers, when of a sudden the bell-like baying
broke upon our ears far louder than it had been before--so loud, indeed,
that it was evident that the dogs were close upon our heels.

'The accursed hounds!' cried Saxon, putting spurs to his horse and
shooting ahead of us; 'I feared as much. They have freed them from the
leash. Ther