“Look before us, yonder!” The Corporal stared at the dusty road, at the rolling landscape to right and left, at Sir John, and shook his head.
“Yonder, Bob, the road, you’ll notice, winds up in a sharp ascent between steep banks crowned with trees and dense brush.... You observe?”
“I do, sir.”
“Well, in something less than ten minutes we shall reach the strategic point; then, at word from me, you will spur and take that hill at full gallop——”
“Ah!” quoth the Corporal; “an ambushment, sir?”
“Why, ’tis a likely place for such, Bob. Ha’ you your pistols?”
“Here, sir!”
“Then have ’em ready! And stoop low in the saddle ... though you will not be their chief target, I fancy——”
“Your honour ... sir ... Sir John, the risk is too great to warrant——”