But a madcap haste seemed to possess us.

We tore through the herbage as if we had been running a race in the yard of a peaceful manor.

The stream stayed us a little, for it could not be forded without a wetting, and I went in up to the waist.

As we scrambled up the far bank some impulse made me turn my head.
There, coming down the water, was a band of Indians.
They were still some distance off, but they saw us, and put their horses to the gallop.

I cried to Ringan to run for the shelter of the woods, for in the open we were at their mercy.