Then he rode forth in the soft summer darkness, turning the mare’s head westward at first, to get clear of the streets and houses, and only heading her north and then east as he made a wide circuit of the city.

To ride through it would have been to court capture; and even as it was, as he sprang forward upon the better road which lay straight for the forest to the northeast, he had a suspicion of being followed, although he could see nothing as he looked back.

The mare bounded beneath him with great, elastic strides.  He could afford to laugh pursuit to scorn.  Perhaps this confidence made him careless, for he noted not two motionless figures, lying as it were in ambush, one on either side of the road in front, just where a clump of great trees threw a deep shadow across the road.  He had thought of foes following behind; but he had not thought of their forestalling his movements and waiting for him in advance.

The mare saw them first, and swerved violently.  That swerve most likely saved her life, if not Tom’s, for at that identical moment two shots rang out, and Bully Bullen with a shout of triumph sprang forward, certain that his bullet had found its billet, and that Tom was in his power at last.

The fire long smouldering in Tom’s breast burst out now into a fierce flame.  His eyes blazed.  A smothered imprecation broke from his lips.  He drew the pistol from his belt, and fired full at the fellow who had sought to seize the mare’s rein.

He might almost have spared his fire, for Nell Gwynne would have dashed out his brains with her forefeet had he not fallen with a groan, a lifeless corpse.  The other man, who had seemed about to rush forward, too, now started back in terror and dismay.  Sheltering himself behind a tree, he yelled out in a voice of trembling fury: 

“You shall swing for this, Tom Tufton! you shall feel the halter about your neck right soon!  The highway robber who is a murderer to boot will never escape the arm of the law!  I will bring you to the gallows ere I have done with you!”

Tom knew the voice, and turned the mare’s head towards the fellow, who, however, decamped so quickly amongst the trees that it was hopeless to try and follow on horseback.  Moreover, Tom did not know that he was not also pursued from behind; and if so, he must gain the friendly shelter of the forest ere his enemies came up.

True, he had but slain this fellow in self-defence.  He had been well-nigh the victim himself.  But the crime thus forced upon him seemed to cut the last cable which bound him to the life of the past.  They might not be able to prove upon him the robbery of the gold, but at least one witness had seen him shoot down Bully Bullen, and would doubtless swear that there had been no provocation beyond that of seeking to take into custody a man upon whose head a reward had been set.

He touched the mare with the spurs, and set her head straight for the forest.  The late moon was beginning to silver the world about him; Tom saw the ground gliding ghostlike beneath him as the noble creature sprang forward.