Page:Milady at Arms (1937).pdf/259

 up and down and pointing toward an outhouse at the rear of Master Alling's property. The band of militia, marching down the Market Lane, broke into a run at a command from their leader. Zenas, tankards in hand, stared open-mouthed.

"Nay, ye dream, Sally," he muttered; but Sally would not be stilled.

"A red-coat! A red-coat!" she kept screaming. And when the militiamen had reached her, they, too, saw a flash of red as someone dodged behind a tree.

"Gadzooks, not one but two!" shouted the leader, John Alling. "After them, men!" And then commenced a wild chase, indeed. In and out of prim, fenced-in yards, doubling, redoubling from tree to tree, the hunted red-coats ran. Sally, mad with excitement, followed, and thought she saw Stockton's face glaring at her as he ran. Now, doubly determined the red-coats should not escape, she pursued the militia, coming to a panting stop outside the churchyard whither the hunted men had run. Savage joy engulfed her when she saw the patriots closing in upon the panting, desperate red-coats, who had taken refuge behind a gravestone.

"Caught i' a trap!" she exulted. "Caught i' a trap as bad as our haymow!"

At last, as was inevitable, the enemy were se-