Leading his horse to the side of the road, he placed himself behind him, and resting his trusty weapon across the saddle, he awaited the coming of the approaching horsemen. He calmly waited until the two men were within a few yards of him, and then, taking as good aim as the light of the moon enabled him to do, he fired. The horseman nearest him uttered a scream of anguish, and, throwing up both hands, toppled from the saddle and fell upon the ground, while his frightened horse, with a snort of terror, wheeled around and dashed off in the direction from whence he had come.
The remaining man stopped his horse with a jerk that drew him back upon his haunches, and then, turning swiftly around, set off in the opposite direction, while the bullets from Scobell's weapon whistled in dangerously close proximity to his ears.
Scobell, seeing that three of the pursuers were either dead or badly wounded, proceeded to reload his weapon, and was preparing to remount his horse and follow after Mrs. Lawton, when he heard the tramp of horses' feet coming from the direction in which she had gone. From the noise they made, he was convinced that the approaching party numbered at least a score, and that they were riding at a sweeping gallop. A bend in the road, however, hid them from his view, and he was unable to determine whether they were friends or foes. In an instant later they swept into full sight, and, to his intense relief, he discovered that they were Union cavalrymen, and that Mrs. Lawton and her husband were at their head.
"Hello, John!" exclaimed Lawton, as they came up, "are you hurt?"
"No," replied Scobell.
"What has become of your assailants?"
"Two of them we left a mile or two back, one is lying there in the road and the other, so far as I know, is making tracks for Richmond," answered Scobell.
"You are a brave fellow, Scobell," said the Captain of the squad, coming forward. "You were lucky in escaping their bullets, and still more so that you didn't break your neck when your horse fell with you, at the speed you were going."
"He fell on his head, I reckon," ventured one of the soldiers, waggishly, "which accounts for his not being hurt."
"That's so," replied Scobell, in all seriousness, "I landed right square on my head in that ditch."