I was becoming quite unmanned when I caught the sound of a horse's footfalls on the road. I rose to my feet from the grassy bank where I had been resting, ran back under the trees, mounted my own horse, rode to the bend of the road, and stationed myself out of sight behind a thick growth of underbrush. I peered cautiously down the road before I took this position and discovered that the oncoming horseman was the red-coated Sir Hugh. The sun had just risen, and the open road was full of light, although the place where I stood was still in quite deep shadow. My nervousness, I am thankful to say, largely left me in the moment of emergency, and I observed with satisfaction that the hand which held the pistol resting lightly across the pommel of the saddle was quite steady. Sir Hugh was pushing his horse at a smart pace. Fortunately for me, however, he reined in just as he approached the wood and scanned it curiously, like the careful soldier that he was. There was nothing suspicious, however, and he rode on rather carelessly. As he came around the bend, I was instantly disclosed. I endeavoured to sit and to look as negligently as was possible. I don't think anything in my appearance awakened his suspicion, for he checked his horse, and turned slowly toward me with an air in which were mingled surprise and satisfaction. "Good-morrow, Master Carthew!" he cried, with a wave of his hand and quite buoyantly. "I thought I had lost you. What strange freak made you get up and ride ahead?" The moment had arrived. It was now or never. If I waited, I could not do it. He looked so handsome in the full light. He bore himself so bravely and seemed so glad to chance upon me again. Quick as a flash, I lifted my right arm and pointed the pistol fair at his heart, although I prayed that I might not have to press the trigger. "Stop where you are!" I cried peremptorily. "If you move a hand, I'll put a bullet through your heart, sir." I never saw such blank astonishment in any human face. At other times I might have laughed at it. "Why, good God!" he exclaimed when he could master his amazement a little. "Silence!" I cried. And my voice, I am sorry to say, lost the deep pitch to which I had striven to subdue it and rang highly feminine. "I mean what I say," I continued. "If you do not obey my commands, I shall be under the painful necessity of killing you." Instinctively confronted by such a weapon,--and my hand, I thrilled to see, did not even yet tremble, though my heart beat so it was like to choke me,--he had remained absolutely motionless. "Is this a jest, young sir?" he at last inquired, frowning. "No jest as you will see, but I have no time for talk. I want..." "Your hundred guineas, I suppose," he sneered. "Why, I offered you them last night. You could have taken them like a gentleman instead of filching them like a thief." "I want no guineas!" I protested.