The colt struggled desperately to free himself from the strange burden upon his back, and yet, singularly enough, never once did he come down upon the ground with sufficient force to cause alarm. He alternately reared and plunged while one might have counted ten, his rider clinging to him meanwhile as if she had been strapped securely down, and then with a bound he cleared the stack of brush which was piled just behind the stable, disappearing an instant later amid the forest, which on this side the plantation had been left standing within a hundred yards of the dwelling.
"She is off, and headed in the right direction," Nathan said in a tone of amazement, as if it was almost incredible the feat had been accomplished, and the words were no more than uttered before out of the house came trooping half a dozen men, alarmed by the thud of the animal's hoofs.
"They have heard her," Evan cried in an agony of apprehension, "and now the chase will begin, for they must understand what her purpose is in thus running away."
Fortunately for the safety of that little band at Greene's Spring, the Britishers were not so well informed by the noise of all that had taken place as Evan believed.
The thud of the colt's feet had simply caused them to believe there might be a disturbance among their own animals, and they were very far from suspecting the real truth of the matter.
They went hurriedly toward the barns wherein their horses were stabled, however, and seeing this both the boys believed that chase was about to be given.
"If she can keep the colt straight on the course, I have no fear they will overtake her," Nathan said, much as though speaking to himself; "but it is not probable the beast will be so tractable."
Now the prisoners watched in anxious suspense to see the first of the troop ride out in pursuit, and as the moments passed their spirits increased almost to bewilderment because no such move was made.
Finally, one by one, the redcoats returned to the house as if satisfied everything was as it should be, and Evan whispered, as if doubting the truth of his own statement:
"It must be that they fail to suspect anything is wrong. There is yet a possibility, Nathan, that Sarah Dillard will accomplish the task which half an hour ago I would have said was absolutely beyond her powers."