Perhaps she was thinking of some of
Endymion's flirtations with the rosy-cheeked mountain lasses, when
ranging among the pastoral hills. Be this supposition correct or not,
just as the approaching sleigh reached a hundred paces of the gate by
which the robbers were concealed, a flood of moonlight burst upon the
road.
'The very pair, by heavens!' exclaimed the Chief, excitedly. 'Three
persons; she is there, too!' The sleigh had now reached very near the
roadside; and one of the men jumped out to open the gate.
'You attend to him,' the Chief whispered to Joe; 'you gag the girl's
mouth with this handkerchief,' to The Lifter; 'Come.'
The robbers rushed out and Murfrey felled his man to the ground with
a blow of his axe-handle. The chief pinioned his man and stopped his
mouth, not before he had cried out twice:
'Highwaymen! Help!'
The Lifter was not so dexterous in his work, for the girl gave
several shrieks before he succeeded in stopping her mouth. At first
he had not the heart to bind this beautiful girl, who looked at him
with such frightened, appealing eyes. But in spite of the hesitation
on The Lifter's part, the terrible business was despatched with
wonderful swiftness.
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