These two were now only facing outwardly
the images which they constantly bore within their breasts. He had been
thinking more of her through that wild ride than of the friend whose
life he was perilling his own to save. She had felt his presence at her
side with every step of the pony's flying feet; it was merely his body
which she was striving to find and shield from harm. So that when they
thus suddenly came face to face in the moonlight there was no need for a
cry or a word. He sprang from his horse and leapt to the pony's side;
and she--as silently and as naturally--held out her arms to meet his
embrace.
But they started apart before touching one another. The distant sound of
horses' beating hoofs came with a gust of wind. It was borne from the
direction of Duff's Fort, and out from among the dark trees there now
rushed into the misty moonlight a score or more of dim shapes, vague and
terrible as phantom horsemen. Nearer and nearer these came rushing
through the wavering mists, with scarcely a sound after that first
warning roar brought by the wind.
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