his anxieties.  He was not much longer left in doubt as to the cause of the animal’s excitement.  A few bounds brought him unexpectedly into a pathway, still girdled, however, by a close thicket—­and having an ascent over a hill, the top of which was of considerable elevation compared with the plain he had been pursuing.  As the horse entered this pathway, and began the ascent, he shyed suddenly, and so abruptly, that a less practised rider would have lost his seat.

“Quiet, beast! what do you see?”

The traveller himself looked forward at his own query, and soon discovered the occasion of his steed’s alarm.  No occasion for alarm, either, judging by appearances; no panther, no wolf, certainly—­a man only—­looking innocent enough, were it not for the suspicious fact that he seemed to have put himself in waiting, and stood directly in the midst of the path that the horseman was pursuing.

Our traveller, as we have seen, was not wholly unprepared, as well to expect as to encounter hostilities.  In addition to his pistols, which were well charged, and conveniently at hand, we may now add that he carried another weapon, for close quarters, concealed in his bosom.  The appearance of the stranger was not, however, so decided a manifestation of hostility, as to justify his acting with any haste by the premature use of his defences.  Besides, no man of sense, and such we take our traveller to be, will force a quarrel where he can make his way peacefully, like a Christian and a gentleman.  Our young traveller very quietly observed as he approached the stranger—­

“You scare my horse, sir.  Will it please you to give us the road?”

“Give you the road?—­Oh! yes! when you have paid the toll, young master!”

The manner of the man was full of insolence, and the blood, in a moment, rushed to the cheeks of the youth.  He divined, by instinct, that there was some trouble in preparation for him, and his teeth were silently clenched together, and his soul nerved itself for anticipated conflict.  He gazed calmly, however, though sternly, at the stranger, who appeared nothing daunted by the expression in the eyes of the traveller.  His air was that of quiet indifference, bordering on contempt, as if he knew his duties, or his man, and was resolved upon the course he was appointed to pursue.  When men meet thus, if they are persons of even ordinary intelligence, the instincts are quick to conceive and act, and the youth was now more assured than ever, that the contest awaited him which should try his strength.  This called up all his resources, and we may infer that he possessed them in large degree, from his quiet forbearance and deliberation, even when he became fully sensible of the insolence of the person with whom he felt about to grapple.