In a small clearing he halted, listening for the sounds of
pursuit, and then pressed forward again until he presently came out upon
the green sward bordering a road. Again he halted to listen, and,
satisfied that the hunters were not too perilously close upon his heels,
he cantered in the direction of the open country which lay to his right.
He was now riding in a direction which made an angle with the way some
of his pursuers had evidently taken; he knew the spot where the two ways
met, and halted again when he reached it. Here a broad glade cut into
the very heart of the wood, and down it came three horsemen at a trot,
looking to right and left as they came, searching for their hidden
quarry. Then they saw him at the end of the glade, and shouted as they
put spurs into their horses. The shouts were answered from other parts
of the wood, and the highwayman smiled underneath his mask as he patted
his horse's neck.
"We'll give them a hopeful chase for a while, my beauty; presently you
shall stretch yourself and leave them behind, but it's a steady canter
for a time. No, no; not even so fast as that. We are well out of pistol
shot.
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