"
"It would be easy to hide a regiment behind those rocks," returned the
trooper, dismounting, and taking the stone in his hand. "Oh! here is the
explanation along with the mystery." So saying, he tore a piece of paper
that had been ingeniously fastened to the small fragment of rock which
had thus singularly fallen before him; and opening it, the captain read
the following words, written in no very legible hand: "_A musket bullet
will go farther than a stone, and things more dangerous than yarbs for
wounded men lie hid in the rocks of Westchester. The horse may be good,
but can he mount a precipice?_"
"Thou sayest the truth, strange man," said Lawton. "Courage and activity
would avail but little against assassination and these rugged passes."
Remounting his horse, he cried aloud, "Thanks, unknown friend; your
caution will be remembered."
A meager hand was extended for an instant over a rock, in the air, and
afterwards nothing further was seen, or heard, in that quarter, by
the soldiers.
"Quite an extraordinary interruption," said the astonished Sitgreaves,
"and a letter of very mysterious meaning."
"Oh! 'tis nothing but the wit of some bumpkin, who thinks to frighten
two of the Virginians by an artifice of this kind," said the trooper,
placing the billet in his pocket.
Pages:
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369