Page:In the name of a woman (1900).djvu/314

 "Thank God for that!" I cried; and I laid the whip on the horses again till they were travelling at headlong, desperate, racing speed.

Then in the mist, as we neared the end of the lane, I saw the main body drawn up in a mass completely blocking the road. They had evidently heard us coming and were prepared for us, and they sat on their horses with their carbines levelled.

"Halt there! or we fire," shouted someone.

But he might as well have shouted to a mountain torrent to stop, for my horses were smarting under the whip I had laid on so generously, and no driver on earth could have stayed their wild rush. Indeed, the words were scarcely out of his lips before we plunged madly right into the midst of them, scattering them to right and left and sending them cannoning one against the other in the utmost confusion.

The officer in command had formed them in a bad order for such a reckless charge as ours. The chief strength was at the sides, and in the middle, where our horses by luck carried us, the line was only two deep.

The check was thus but momentary. There was a violent shock as we dashed against the first horseman; my horses stumbled and I thought would fall. My companion and I were jerked violently forward nearly on to their backs, but in a second and scarcely with a pause they recovered, and before I could realise what had happened we were through the ranks and clear of them, with Spernow and another man close behind us and dashing along again with barely abated fury for the main road.

"Lie down on the floor of the cart; they may fire after us," I cried. The next instant the guns rang out and the bullets came whistling past our ears. But the