She was bound to put her wood on, however,
so she pushed ahead, went up on the bridge through the smoke
as far as she could go, and flung her rails on the now devouring fire.
A sudden veer of the wind blew the smoke behind her and bent the flames aside,
and she could see clear across the fire to the other bank.
She saw a great number of men on horses at the edge of the woods,
in a sort of mass; and a half-dozen or so in the water
riding up to their saddle-skirts half-way to the bridge,
and between the first two, wading in water to his waist, Darby.
He was bare-headed and he waved his hat to her, and she heard a single cheer.
She waved her hand to him, and there was a little puff of smoke
and something occurred in the water among the horses. The smoke from the fire
suddenly closed around her and shut out everything from her eyes,
and when it blew away again one of the horses had thrown his rider
in the water. There was a lot of firing both from the edge of the wood
and from the horsemen in the water, and Darby had disappeared.
She made her way back to the bank and plunged into a clump of bushes,
where she was hidden and watched the raiders. She saw several of them try
to ford the river, one got across but swam back, the others were swept down
by the current, and the horse of one got out below without his rider.
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