"Turn round and drive back. Be quick, make them go: do you hear?"
"Yah, sah," answered Dan. A flush had sprung into Reynolds' cheeks in response to his sudden resolve. How could he ever have thought of abandoning her in this cowardly way? She is mine, he thought, she loves me, he has no right to her now: I will go back and claim my own with a force that shall be irresistible.
"Drive faster, Dan, do you hear, drive faster!"
"Yah, sah, boss."
The mares put themselves forth to their utmost, gladly reaching back toward home. For a minute or two Reynolds was wholly in the power of this new mood. But it passed as suddenly as it had come, and again, with redoubled weight, the load of despair returned.
"Hold up, Dan, hold up!"
"Yah, sah." Dan once more brought the equipage to a standstill.
Flickering expressions of hesitancy, faltering and giving up of hope, played for a brief space of time on Reynolds' face, before he could say:
"Turn again: drive to Montgomery."
"By jiffs!" muttered Dan, sotto voce, "is de boss done gone 'stracted?"