Calypso was there, sure enough, but so was someone else; and had it not been that I proceeded with such stealth, he must have overheard the sounds of my progress. Creech knew me too well to suppose I would have left the roan to him, and there he sat upon his haunches, just afore me in the bracken, with his eyes on the nag. Not a twig stirred as I approached, and my steps fell noiselessly upon the grass, for here the forest was more open. And thus I came within spring of Dan, when drawing a pistol, I suddenly walked out of the bushes with the most unconcerned air you can imagine. Creech turned sharply, but the nozzle of my barker was at his forehead.
"Ah, Danny, Danny!" says I, "you would not rob a poor young fellow of his mare!"
Creech turned white with rage, and swore horribly.
"Hush, Danny, hush!" says I. "Think on your immortal soul, Danny, and forego wicked words—also," says I, "those ugly weapons, being the instruments of an evil life."
Dan said nothing, but I meant to take his fangs out, and so brought him to sharply with the pistol.
"Drop 'em!" says I briskly; and with another furious oath Creech threw his barkers to the ground. After that I had gathered them up, says I again, very cheerful, "And now, Danny," I says, "'tis time for an innocent young fellow like me to be getting home to his mammie; which being so, with your kind help, faith, I will e'en venture to mount the nag, me and my treasure," and I slapped the box underneath my coat.
Creech was livid, and his eyes glared on me full of the devil; but I kept him under with the pistol, and drove him, sullen, up to Calypso. Vaulting into the saddle, I turned and took off my hat to him, with a mocking tongue; but in that instant, whenas my back was towards him, Dan had skipped into the thicket, and now I heard him scrambling through the bushes, yelling and whistling as he went. I was not afraid of him or his creatures, but I did not design to be caught, and so set Calypso's heels to work. But just as I did so there came up a clatter of hoofs from the yard near by, and I knew that Creech was upon my track. Calypso flew forward like a swallow, and at the same moment the noise of a pistol spread echoes abroad, and a bullet snipped a corner from my hat. That was my signal to be gone. "Come, my girl," says I; and the roan, leaping to the rowels, sped down the narrow pathway in a gallop.
The track was as lean as a gutter, and sloped very sharply; the bushes, too, pressed hard upon it, and 'twas not the least of my hazards to come down that descent at a breakneck speed. But I knew well enough that the pursuit would be instant, and that Creech was in too black a rage to pick his footsteps. So I kept the nag to her pace, and on she rushed, floundering from side to side, swaying against the bushes, and slithering over the smooth rocks. I held her up with the reins, and more than once saved her from coming down upon her prats; and once she took me sudden under the overhanging bough of a tree, which fell so low that the sight of it set me a-blinking. But or ever I was past my doubts we were through, and the mare was clattering for the high road. Not until we reached this did I pull in, and twist about in my saddle to inspect what was forward. Creech and his men were not yet forth of the wood, but I could hear 'em pounding away down the path, and guessed that they were none so far away. But for that I cared not a groat, for Calypso was staunch and fleet, and more than a match for any horse in the shires. So, pulling her round upon the Belbury road, I urged her into a gentle canter.