"
Petty had all the easy familiarity of the backwoods. He treated the boy
and man who rode with him as comrades of at least a year's standing,
and they felt in return that he was one of them, a man to be trusted.
They retained all the buoyancy which the receipt of the dispatch had
given them, and Dick, his heart beating high, scarcely felt the wind and
cold.
"In another quarter of an hour we'll be at the top," said Petty.
Then he added after a moment's pause: "If I'm not mistook, we'll have
company. See that path, leadin' out of the west, an' runnin' along the
slope. It comes into the main road, two or three hundred yards further
on, an' I think I can see the top of a horseman's head ridin' in it.
What do you say, sergeant?"
"I say that you are right, Red Blaze. I plainly see the head of a big
man, wearing a fur cap, an' there are others behind him, ridin' in
single file. What's your opinion, Mr. Mason?"
"The same as yours and Red Blaze's. I, too, can see the big man with
the fur cap on his head and at least a dozen following behind. Do you
think it likely, Red Blaze, that they'll reach the main road before we
pass the mouth of the path?"
A sudden thought had leaped up in Dick's mind and it set his pulses to
beating hard. He remembered some earlier words of Red Blaze's.
"We'll go by before they reach the main road," replied Red Blaze,
"unless they make their hosses travel a lot faster than they're
travelin' now.
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