[Chapter XIX.]
Through the Gap.
Joe Burnap was perfectly familiar with the country, and Tom readily accepted him as a guide; and, as they had a common object in view, neither had good cause for mistrusting the other. They walked, without stopping to rest, till the sun set behind the mountains towards which they were travelling.
“I reckon we needn’t hurry now,” said Joe, as he seated himself on a rock.
“I don’t think there is any danger of their catching us,” replied Tom, as he seated himself beside his fellow-traveller. “Can you tell me where we are?”
“I reckon I can. There ain’t a foot of land in these yere parts that I hain’t had my foot on. I’ve toted plunder of all sorts through these woods more’n ten thousand times.”
“Well, where are we?” asked Tom, whose doubts in regard to the locality had not yet been solved.
In the pressure of more exciting matters, he had not attempted to explain why he did not come to Fairfax station while following the railroad.
“If we keep on a little while longer, I reckon we shall come to Thoroughfare Gap,” answered Joe.