Darby waited for this,
and when he reached it and saw the bridge still standing
his heart sank like lead. Other eyes saw it too, and a score of glasses
were levelled at it, and a cheer went up.
"Why don't you cheer too?" asked an officer. "You have more to make or lose
than anyone else."
"We ain't there yit," said Darby.
Once he thought he had seen a little smoke, but it had passed away,
and now they were within three miles of the bridge and there was nothing.
What if, after all, Vashti had failed and the bridge was still standing!
He would really have brought the raiders by the best way and have helped them.
His heart at the thought came up into his throat. He stopped and began to
look about as if he doubted the road. When the main body came up, however,
the commander was in no doubt, and a pistol stuck against his head
gave him to understand that no fooling would be stood. So he had to go on.
As to Vashti, she had covered the fifteen miles which lay
between the district and the fork-road; and had found and sent a messenger
to give warning in the city; but not finding any of the homeguard
where she thought they were, she had borrowed some matches
and had trudged on herself to execute the rest of Darby's commands.
The branches were high from the backwater of the fork, and she often had
to wade up to her waist, but she kept on, and a little after daylight
she came to the river.
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