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"Them was my sentiments, but when I joined the party under Inman, a little while ago, he told me the boys had reconsidered that matter, and decided that after what Sterry has done, and tried to do, I hadn't any right to make the promise." "That may be their decision, but it cannot affect yours; you are bound by the pledge you made in writing to him."
"Fred," said Sterry, with the same coolness shown from the first, "slip through the door; you know where your gun is; stoop a little, so I won't have to shift my aim; when that is done we'll talk about compromise." Fred Whitney, as quick as his companion to "catch on," did instantly what was requested.
Sterry was on the point of uttering a shout of exultation and admiration at the clever manoeuvre, when Jennie cried out; and well might she do so, for fifty yards beyond, and directly in their path, the ice seemed suddenly to have become alive with the frightful creatures, who streamed from the woods on both sides, ravenous, fierce and unrestrainable in their eagerness to share in the expected feast.
I thought you passed out just now." "You see I did not. Why do you make such a remark?" "Some one went out," was the amazing declaration. Monteith Sterry was astounded by the declaration of Dick Hawkridge that some one had passed through the rear door while he was talking with Capt. Asbury. "Who was it?" demanded he. "I told you we thought it was you," replied his friend.
Asbury was a brave man, and he did not start on hearing this announcement, for he had been expecting it from the first; but he was prudent as well as daring, and he knew his young friend did not underestimate the danger of himself and companions. "Have they learned anything about last night's doings?" asked Sterry. "That's what started me off after you in such a hurry.
Had Sterry attempted to steal along the side of the house and then dodge away, he would have been detected and halted at once. On the contrary, he moved with his usual gait in a diagonal direction toward the stables. His object was to learn the likeliest method of leaving the place.
Whitney's illness as an explanation of her son's delay in returning to the camp of the rustlers. Exasperated, and suspecting a pretense, Inman consented to a brief postponement of the attack. The next startling occurrence was the capture of Monteith Sterry while trying to steal through the lines.
The brutes were now so far to the rear that there was little to be feared from them, though they still kept up the pursuit, and while able to follow in a straight line were doing so with more speed than would be expected. It struck Sterry that his friend was not skating with his utmost skill. He was alarmed. "What's the matter, Fred?" he called, drawing quickly near him. "O, Jennie! Jennie!
Why do you remain where you are a marked man when there is no need of it, and where your personal danger is certainly as great as mine?" This argumentum ad hominem was so unexpected that Sterry was embarrassed for the moment, but found voice to reply: "I have no mother and sister dependent on me, as you have."
The only way of escape was still in front, and, with the utmost energy, power, and skill at his command, Monteith Sterry darted ahead. His crouching body, the head well in advance, somewhat after the manner of a racing bicyclist on the home-stretch, his compressed lips, his flashing eyes, with every muscle tense, were proof that he knew it had now become a struggle of life and death.
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