Behind, an oblong of lesser |^oom through the black-
ness showed the location of the door.
And through the door they surged pell-mell.
Down the steps they rushed and flung themselves
upon their watting horses. Out of the grounds they
galloped and down the road.
A hundred yards farther on they drew rein as by com-
mon consent. But before they could bring their



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130 " DAD "

mounts to a halt the clatter of hoofs behind them sent
their scared gaze backward.
By the pale starlight they could just distinguish
their half -clad foe — enormous and ghostly in the dim
light — astride a monster horse, bearing down on them
at the speed of an express-train. The svord still
gleamed above his head.
There was no pause ; there was no consultation ; there
was no impulse to investigate.
Swayed by a single purpose, the four guerrillas
urged their tired horses to a run. Down the road they
streamed, their ghostly foe in close pursuit.
Presently — or, as it seemed to them, after a thou-
sand years of terror-flight — the foremost of them
reached the by-road. And, with the instinct of a bur-
row-seeking rabbit, he wheeled his horse into it. His
three comrades followed his example.
They had ridden for perhaps a mile when the rear-
most of them paused to make certain of what he had
begun to hope, that their terrible ^ost-foe had ceased
his pursuit.
One by one the guerrillas drew in their exhausted
horses. No hoof -beats or any other sound came, to
them on the summer night's still air.
Shamefacedly the men looked at one another. Then,
without a word, they set off at a walk for their camp,
Ave miles away.
