“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 password. Realm. Can they be friends of the prisoners sent forward as scouts?”
“Do you think so?” said Frank.