"By the ----!" he said, "he ain't going to quit after that fashion," and
as he went out towards the corner where Walter still lingered, I saw his
hand shift back to the butt of my revolver. Now, I was too sensible of
the guide's good intentions and disinterested kindness to wish to press
hardly on a temporary loss of nerve, so I busied myself with buckle and
curb-link, and refrained from assisting at the debate; it was very
brief, nor can I say if Alick's arguments were intimidating or
conciliatory; I rather suspected the former, from the expression of his
face when he returned, simply remarking, "I've made it all right, Major.
He stops with us as long as we want him to."
Ten minutes afterwards we gained the shelter of the woods, and, keeping
always well down in the gullies or hollows, were picking our way in a
direction nearly parallel to that taken by our pursuers. This was our
only course, as we dared not show ourselves as yet across open ground or
along traveled roads. We might have ridden about a league and a half--it
is difficult to judge distance in thick cover and over broken ground,
when the pace is so constantly varied--our guide's confidence began to
return, and, with it, his weakness for self-laudation. He began once
more to recount his many narrow escapes, and was sanguine as to his
chance of pulling through this--the closest shave of all.
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