“But he once told her that himself!” she cried. “Has he no more to tell her?”
And Captain Stanley, aghast, fairly leaped in his stirrups.
“Who are you?” he gasped. “What do you know of——”
His voice was smothered in the sudden out-crash of rifles, through which startled trumpets sounded, followed by the running explosions of cavalry carbines.
“Attention! Draw sabres!” rang out a far voice in the increasing uproar.
The night air thrilled with the rushing swish of steel drawn swiftly across steel.
“Forward!” and “Forward! Forward!” echoed the officers, one after another.
“Steady—right dress!”—taken up by the troop officers: “Steady—right dress! By fours—right wheel—march!”
Pell-mell the flanking parties came crashing back out of the dusky undergrowth, and:
“Steady—trot! Steady—right dress—gallop!” came the orders.