The robbers then set out through the wood for the road, by which the unsuspecting negro must pass. The heavy clouds which had crept in upon the sky at the set of sun now began to part, and, before the miscreants had emerged from the bush, the deep dark of their path was here and there parted by a shaft of silvery light. Through the tree tops a glimpse of the sky could be occasionally obtained; and although no leaf quivered in this sombre swamp the clouds raced across the face of the moon, sometimes shutting up the heavens in dark, again allowing the glory to stream forth and bathe the sky in pure splendour.
'We had better be mounted,' the chief said. 'The negro is a good horseman, and he will likely have one or two others with him. We have little time to lose.' The robbers then bent their steps to the stables, where the horses of the band were kept. A deaf mute cared for the horses, a man with a face so villainous looking, as to make it entirely indescribable. Standing upon the top of the bleak common, with drifts of moonlight shot from the openings, with flying clouds above, every now and again falling upon it, it looked well like the lair of mystery and crime.
The robber chief laid his finger-tips with a gentle sound upon the door, and immediately the mute pushed back the bolts; and then stood aside to let the robbers in.
'Well,' enquired the chief, 'have they passed to York?' and the dummy answering (for it was only to the country side that he was deaf and dumb) said:
'Yes, he and a big country loot passed about twelve o'clock.'
'So early!' ejaculated the captain. 'Then we are not here any too soon.'
'Shall I saddle?'
'Immediately—Do you think these fellows will fight?'
'They were both heavily armed. The negro carried a heavy cutlass and a pair of pistols.
'Ah, then the swamp has its terrors for them.'