CHAPTER XVII.
LITTLE SNAP'S DISAPPOINTMENT.
"He's getting away!" shouted the man who had hailed the postboy. "Come on, you lubbers!"
If Little Snap had been taken off his guard at first, he was wide awake enough now, and giving Fairy an encouraging cry, he was borne swiftly away by the fleet-footed mare.
Glancing back once more, he saw the four men in pursuit of him, but as long as they were on foot, he had but little to fear from them.
With their hoarse shouts ringing in his ears, he sped around a curve in the road and out of their sight.
After he had gone a couple of miles, finding that he was not likely to be troubled by their pursuit, he slackened Fairy's speed, and improved his first opportunity to bend over and pat Jack's head close beside him, saying:
"Noble boy, you knew more than your master that time. I wonder where I should be now if you hadn't read that fellow's intentions better than I did? I wasn't quite satisfied with him, but his story did throw me off my guard. I have got to keep my eyes open sharper than that."
Talking thus, half to his animal friends and half to himself, he rode swiftly on toward Volney, the soft, clayey soil muffling the hoof strokes of his horses so that they gave back no sound, his advance scarcely breaking in upon the silence of the night.
Soon after his escape from the waylayers, whom he judged the men to be, he shifted upon Jack, giving Fairy a rest.
To his joy he at last came to what he was confident was the corner of the Blue Stone and Mountain roads spoken of by Mr. Renders.