From the start he set a hot pace. Before long Dick felt his horse was growing more and more tired and finally he protested.
"Slow up, then, if you like!" said Stepan, fiercely. "Don't you know by this time that I don't speak of danger unless it is real? Perhaps you want to be caught by these people! But they know me—and I know what they would do to me! I don't intend to have them catch me, I can tell you!"
"Then why did you come with me?" asked Dick, angrily. He had never seen his friend in such a mood before. Stepan's tone made him so angry that he was almost able to forget how much he owed him.
Stepan didn't answer. But just then, as they still rode on, forcing their pace, they came to a turn in the road. A lone figure, mounted on a big horse, was standing guard. At sight of them he leaned forward, then cried out sharply, "Halt!"
For answer Stepan spurred his horse on; Dick's followed. A shot rang out; then another, and another, but no bullets came near them.
"He's signalling. Now will you believe I was right?" asked Stepan bitterly.
The thunder of hoofs sounded on the road behind them. They sped on, but suddenly Dick's horse lurched and almost threw him over its head, Dick pulled him up; the poor brute was limping.
"He can't go on!" said Dick. "Stepan—"
"Then you'll have to shift for yourself!" shouted Stepan, brutally. "I've done all I can for you!"
And, leaving Dick dumbfounded, he spurred on and was soon visible only as a cloud of dust! Dick could scarcely believe his eyes and ears. That Stepan, his trusted friend, who had shared every imaginable peril with him, could desert him so now! But he had not long to think. The pursuers whose horses they had heard were on him in a minute more. Without a struggle, since the odds were overwhelming—ten or twelve men assailed him—he let himself be dragged from his horse and bound.