if we looked forward. I propose
to stop at the top of the hill and wait."

"Yes," said Frank eagerly.

"Perhaps go on for a quarter of a mile, so as to be where we are not
observed."

The horses were kept at a walking pace till the village was reached, and
here a gate was stretched across, and a man came out to take the toll,
Frank noticing that he examined them keenly by the light of a lanthorn.

"Any one passed lately--horsemen and carriages?" said the captain
quietly.

The man chuckled.

"Yes, a couple of your kidney," said the man. "You're too late."

A pang shot through Frank, and he leaned forward.

"Too late? What do you mean, sir?" cried the captain sharply; and, as
he spoke, he threw back his horseman's cloak, showing his uniform
slightly.

"Oh, I beg your worships' pardon. I took you for gentlemen of the
road."

"What, highwaymen?"

"Yes, sir. A couple of them went by not ten minutes ago. But I don't
suppose they'll try to stop you. They don't like catching Tartars. Be
as well to have your pistols handy, though."

"Thank you for the hint," said the captain, and they rode on.

"What do you say, Frank?" said the captain. "Shall we go any farther?
It would be an awkward experience for you if we were stopped by
highwaymen. Shall we stop?"

"Oh, we cannot stop to think about men like that," said Frank excitedly.

"Not afraid, then?"

"I'm afraid we shall not meet the prisoners," said the boy sadly.

"Forward, then. But unfasten the cover of your holsters. You will find
loaded pistols there, and can take one out if we are stopped--I mean if
any one tries to stop us. But," he added grimly, "I don't think any one
will."

At another time it would have set the boy trembling with excitement; but
his mind was too full of the object of their expedition, and as the
horses paced on the warning about the gentlemen who infested the main
roads in those days was forgotten, so that a few minutes later it came
as a surprise to the boy when a couple of horsemen suddenly appeared
from beneath a clump of trees by the roadside, came into the middle of
the road, and barred their way.

"Realm?" said one of the men sharply.

"Keep off, or I fire," cried Captain Murray.

The two mounted men reined back on the instant, and, pistol in hand, the
captain and Frank went on at a walk.

"I don't think--nay, I'm sure--that those men are not on the road,
Frank," said the captain quietly. "That was a pas