There was a rimy look about his face, and a snarl in the voice that shouted to the crew behind him,
"Come! close in there! You've got to finish this job before you go.
The soldiers are on your heels, remember."
Close at hand a sudden drum rolled.
It smote the guilty hearts of the Gang like a summons to the Last
Judgment.
"What's that?"
They rose up like dead men and looked behind them. It was not much they saw, but it was sufficient.
Close in their rear, on a rise of the ground, a man stood against the sky, thundering fatally on a monster drum.
He wore a red coat; he was a soldier.
And as they gazed, he beat a furious rat-a-tan-tan and charged.
That was enough. The Gang broke.