"By his hump 'tis a dromedary!" added the captain, eying it keenly.
Wheeling his horse suddenly from the highway he exclaimed, "Harvey
Birch!--take him, dead or alive!"
Mason and a few of the leading dragoons only understood the sudden cry,
but it was heard throughout the line. A dozen of the men, with the
lieutenant at their head, followed the impetuous Lawton, and their speed
threatened the pursued with a sudden termination of the race.
Birch prudently kept his position on the rock, where he had been seen by
the passing glance of Henry Wharton, until evening had begun to shroud
the surrounding objects in darkness. From this height he had seen all
the events of the day, as they occurred. He had watched with a beating
heart the departure of the troops under Dunwoodie, and with difficulty
had curbed his impatience until the obscurity of night should render his
moving free from danger. He had not, however, completed a fourth of his
way to his own residence, when his quick ear distinguished the tread of
the approaching horse. Trusting to the increasing darkness, he
determined to persevere. By crouching and moving quickly along the
surface of the ground, he hoped yet to escape unseen. Captain Lawton was
too much engrossed with the foregoing conversation to suffer his eyes to
indulge in their usual wandering; and the peddler, perceiving by the
voices that the enemy he most feared had passed, yielded to his
impatience, and stood erect, in order to make greater progress.
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