"Halloo! what's up?" I called from the open window of my bedroom on the ground-floor.
"Did two men pass here on horseback since dark?"
"Yes," I said; "about twelve o'clock: a tall man and a little short fellow."
"Did they stop to water?"
"No, they did not; and they seemed in such a tearing hurry that I watched them down the road"—
"I am after those men, and I want a fresh horse," he cut in. "Call up somebody quick!"
"Shall you take one of the boys along?" I inquired, with half an eye to myself, after I had obeyed his command.
He shook his head. "Only one horse here that's good for anything: I want that myself."
"There is my horse," I suggested; "but I'd rather be the one who rides her. She belongs to a friend."
"Take her, and come on, then, but understand—this ain't a Sunday-school picnic."