The bullet is in the tree a good four
feet above his head," said the highwayman as he closed the coach door.
"You must travel for the rest of the journey alone, but have no fear. I
ride by the coach to see you into safety. Forward, post-boy! Good-night,
Lord Rosmore. A woman betrayed you, even as you have betrayed many
women. Thank fate that your life lay in the hands of Mistress Lanison,
and not in hers. She would have bid me shoot straight. Good-night."
For a moment the highwayman let his horse paw the ground in front of the
man bound helplessly to the tree. Then he laughed, as a man will who
plays a winning game, and rode after the coach.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE LEATHER CASE
Her rescue had been so sudden, so unexpected, that it was difficult for
Barbara to realise that she was alone in the coach, that she need no
longer shrink away from a man she hated, that her ears were no more
assailed by threats and vile insinuations. The relief was so intense
that for a little while she revelled in her liberty, and cried a little
for very joy. Why did not the man who had delivered her come to the door
of the coach and talk to her? Not as he had done just now, calling her
Mistress Lanison and seeming not to hear when she had called him
Gilbert, but as he had spoken to her that other night in her prison in
Dorchester.
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