Then they went to the window looking up the valley.

The horsemen, some twenty in number, were but a short quarter of a mile away, and were coming along at a gallop.
"Don't fire, Surajah," Dick said.

"They will have heard, from the man who has got away, that we are in the house opposite, and if they don't find us there, they will think that we have gone on, and will ride down the valley till they are sure they must be ahead of us.

Then they will search the ground carefully, as they come back, and altogether we may gain an hour; and every moment is of use.

It must be two o'clock now, and our troop generally gets here soon after seven." As he spoke, the horsemen drew up in front of the opposite hut.