He clenched his fist nervously, and involuntarily placed his other hand on one of the pistols which he carried with him.
‘I will let him pass me,’ thought Kay, ‘I will let him pass me before I pounce out upon him, and then I shall take him more by surprise, and he will be less likely to offer any resistance.’
The traveller had now left off whistling, and had broke into a negro melody, which he sang in self-satisfied tones, but which were anything but harmonious.
‘Your money or your life!’ cried Kay in a disguised voice, rushing up to the traveller, from his place of concealment, and laying hold of the horse’s bridle.
The old man, was of course, rather startled, but he collected himself in a moment, and with the utmost coolness, said:—
‘I tells thee what it is, young man, you’re on a bad errand, and I advise you let go the bridle, and go about your business, before harm come to you.’
‘There, there, no nonsense,’ replied Kay, in an impatient tone; ‘I am a desperate man and must have money.’
‘D—n you, you are a daring rascal,’ cried the traveller, ‘let go of the bridle, or it may not be long ere I make you repent thy job. Leave go of the bridle, I again tell you! You won’t, then, d—n me, if I don’t soon make you, and that’s all about it.’
With these words the traveller flourished his heavy whip, and aimed a blow at the head of Kay with the butt-end of it, which if he had not stepped quickly aside and avoided would, in all probability have deprived him immediately of farther power.
‘Old idiot!’ cried the enraged ruffian, ‘you will urge me to that which I would rather avoid; will you deliver up your money, I say, once more?’