The sergeant raised his own rifle, longer of barrel than the average
army weapon, and pulled the trigger. He had aimed at Skelly, but the
leader swerved, and a man behind him rolled off his horse. The others,
although slowing their speed a little, in order to be out of the range
of that deadly rifle, continued to come.
The pursuit at first seemed futile to Dick, because they would soon
descend into Townsville's valley, and the raiders could not follow them
into the midst of an entire regiment. But presently he saw their plan.
The pass now widened out with a few hundred yards of level space on
either side of the road thickly covered with forest. The branches of
the trees were bare, but the undergrowth was so dense that horsemen
could he hidden in it. Bands of the raiders darted into the woods both
to right and left, and he knew that advancing on a straight line one or
the other of the parties expected to catch the fugitives who must follow
the curves of the road.
The advantage of the pursuit was soon shown as a shot from the right
whistled by them. Red Blaze, quick as lightning, fired at the flash of
the rifle.
"I don't know whether I hit him or not," he said, judicially, "but the
chances are pow'ful good that I did. Still it looks as if they meant to
hang on an' likely we kin soon expect shots from the other side, too.
Then if they know the country as well as they 'pear to do they'll have
us clamped in a vise.
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