“Aha!” exclaimed a gruff voice; “things is comin’ out all right, arter all. The money is mine an’ so is the mar’.”
Almost as soon as I touched the ground, I raised myself on my elbow, and when I had taken a single glance at the horse standing before me, I comprehended the situation.
It was Black Bess, and the man who was dismounting from her was Luke Redman.
He had by some means succeeded in securing the horse and eluding the settlers, and was riding at full speed through the cane, when I had run directly in his path and been knocked down—a circumstance which the outlaw regarded as favorable to himself, although it turned out exactly the reverse.
He probably imagined that I was badly injured by the hard fall I had received, and he must have been astonished at the determined resistance he met with when he rushed up to me and attempted to take the valise out of my hand.
I have no idea how long the struggle continued, for my brain was in a great whirl, and I took no note of time. All I knew was that I must hold fast to that money.
I was dragged about through the cane, beaten on the head by Luke Redman’s hard fist, and when at last he tore the valise from my grasp, I threw my arms about his legs and pitched him headlong on the ground.
Just as this happened, I heard a furious crashing in the cane, several dark objects bounded over me and commenced a desperate battle with my antagonist, cries of pain and ejaculations of surprise rang in my ears, and then all was blank to me. Some of the settlers, with their dogs, had arrived just in time.
It was dark when my consciousness returned. At first I did not know where I was or what was the matter with me, but gradually the remembrance of the scenes through which I had passed during the afternoon came back to me, and I started up in alarm, expecting to find myself once more a prisoner in the hands of the robber band.
A single look, however, was enough to satisfy me that I was among friends, and that I had nothing to fear. I was lying on a blanket in front of a blazing fire, and father and our fellows were stretched out on the ground beside me.