Just as they were starting on again, Peter, looking round, saw mounted men--a dozen or more of them of very wild aspect--cantering through the trees evidently with the object of cutting them off.
"Thieves!" he said shortly.

"Ride for it." So they began to gallop, and their horses, although somewhat jaded, being very swift, passed in front of these men before they could regain the road.

The band shouted to them to surrender, and, as they did not stop, loosed a few arrows and pursued them, while they galloped down the hillside on to a plain which separated them from more hills also clothed with cork-trees.

This plain was about three miles wide and boggy in places.

Still they kept well ahead of the brigands, as they took them to be, hoping that they would give up the pursuit or lose sight of them amongst the trees.