Page:Paul Clifford Vol 1.djvu/310

280 The three men now were drawn up quite still and motionless by the side of the hedge. The broad road lay before them curving out of sight on either side; the ground was hardening under an early tendency to frost, and the clear ring of approaching hoofs sounded on the ear of the robbers, ominous, haply, of the chinks of "more attractive metal," about, if Hope told no flattering tale, to be their own.