Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/140

124 sight of the chattering squirrels afforded some variety in the monotony of the swift and steady ride which Robert was taking.

As soon as he had proceeded a few miles beyond the region where he believed his greatest peril was to be met, he regained a measure of composure and his thoughts reverted to the stirring experiences through which he had passed that morning. He had not succeeded in entirely freeing his garments from the ashes in which he had been concealed, but the fact of his escape was so much more important than the discomfort, that he felt like shouting and singing in his enthusiasm. He laughed as he recalled the lowering countenance of Claudius Brown when the cowboy had fled from the house, but a silence followed when he thought of the peril of the two women who had been left in the lonely farmhouse. It was wrong, he said decidedly to himself, that they should be thus left unprotected. The sturdy boldness of Hannah and the more quiet strength of her mother were not unlike that which was displayed by many of the patriotic women of the period who had urged their husbands and brothers to go into the struggle for the freedom of the colonies, but none the less it was more than ought to