“Tush, Bob! They have seen us long since and, should we turn tail now, would but choose some other time and place when we were less prepared. Besides, there is about the uncertainty a thrill that stirs me not unpleasingly—and to feel is to be alive!”
“Very good, sir!” answered Robert the Imperturbable, loosing pistols in holsters.
“On the whole, Bob, the country hath an infinity of charms, more especially this fair country o’ Sussex. Now! Spur, man, spur!”
A clatter of hoofs spurning the dust, a creaking of saddle-leather, and the two high-spirited animals breasted the steep ascent at a gallop, their riders low-crouched, pistols in hand; they had reached thus the steepest part of the hill when from the bank above rang a shot, followed immediately by a second, and Sir John, rocking in the saddle, dropped his weapon, steadied himself and grasped at right forearm; the Corporal meanwhile, having fired in return, swung to earth and began to scramble up the bank, but, the slope being very precipitous, it was some minutes ere he reached, and vanished among, the dense brush.
“Save thyself further trouble!” cried Sir John. “The rogues will be well away by now, Bob.”
“They are, sir!” answered the Corporal ruefully. “But they’ve left a hat behind ’em!”
“A hat, Bob? Then bring it—bring it hither, man!” Back into the road scrambled Robert forthwith, to behold his master, pale and bloody, whereupon he dropped the hat and came running.
“Are ye hurt bad, sir?”
“Pish—naught to matter! The hat, Bob, the hat!” The Corporal brought it, turning it this way and that for his master’s inspection.