Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/358

342 the exercise of his utmost discretion in this journey which it was hoped would be the last that it would be necessary for him to make before the results of the campaign would be known. It was a source of some disappointment to him that he had been unable to see Joseph Nott or any of his brothers, and so learn how it had fared with Hannah and various other persons, whose fate and deeds had become of great interest to him.

However, the spirits of the young express were high when he was started on his way, for the early morning air was crisp and cool, and the very excitement under which he was laboring was itself a strong appeal to him. He rode swiftly past some of the places that had become familiar to him in his previous journeys, but he dared not stop, for the command for him to make haste had been imperative, and his fears for his own safety were not lightly to be ignored.

Early in the afternoon the weather changed, a drizzling rain set in, and soon he was wet and miserable; though not for a moment did he abandon the even, steady gait at which he was riding. He had been passing through a long stretch of woods, where the falling leaves and the dreary appearance of the trees