Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/61

Rh scattered country people had come to tremble at the mention of his name. Nor was he the only one who had taken advantage of the troublous times to carry out his own bold projects; and though at first he had declared that he asked no favors of either side in the struggle and would give none, of late it had been currently reported that he had been siding with the forces of King George; though whether this was done because of surer gains and larger rewards, or because his own mind led him so to choose, no one knew.

Robert Dorlon shrugged his shoulders in the darkness and softly whistled as he heard that he was a prisoner of the well-known band.

"I thought so," laughed Josh. "’Most everybody has."

"Why do you call yourselves the Thirteen?"

"Because that's what we are, or rather it's what we started with. Some have been shot, and some have left, but we 've had more come, so I guess we 're about the same's when we started. There's another reason why we call ourselves that, though."

"What is it?"

"Well, it seems to be a sort o' a magical number 'mong the rebels, an' if it is, there's