Imaginary wars and battles -- Fiction; Science fiction
The turnpike was inclosed by a high, woven-wire fence, and the girl
obeying turned down the road. Her would-be claimant put spurs to his
horse and dashed after her, leaving Winslow covering the rear
horseman with his magazine pistol.
"Well," said the drunken officer weakly, "I ain't doing nothing."
"Then ride down the road the other way as fast as you can go."
The officer obeyed.
For a moment Winslow watched him and then turned to see Ethel
climbing over the woven-wire fence with the soldier trying to urge
his horse up the embankment to reach her.
Winslow started to run to the girl's rescue, but no sooner had he
turned than a bullet sang past his ear. Wheeling about he saw the
other cavalryman riding toward him firing as he came.
With lewd brutality calling for vengeance in one direction and a man
firing at his back from the other, Winslow's aversion to bloodshed
became nil; and, aiming cool, he began firing at the approaching
officer.
It must have been the horse that got the bullet, for with the third
shot mount and rider somersaulted upon the macadam.
Without compunction, Winslow turned and sprinted down the roadway.
He saw Ethel dashing across the field, hurdling the cotton rows. The
officer was racing down the road, seeming away from her, but in
another moment he turned through a gap in the fence and rode down
upon the fleeing woman.
The athletic Winslow vaulted the six-foot fence with an easy spring,
and tore madly through the obstructing vegetation.
The rider overtaking the woman, tried to hold her, first by the arm,
and failing in that, he grabbed her by the hair. Winslow wondered
why she did not shoot him, and then he recalled that he was carrying
both weapons.
In another instant he was up with them and had dragged the man from
his horse and flung him to the ground. The soldier kicked and swore,
but half drunk, his resistance was of small consequence to his
well-trained adversary.
"Here," called Winslow to the girl, who had tumbled down in a heap
more from fright than physical exhaustion, "come and get my knife
and cut the rein from the horse's bridle."
Thus equipped, the two strapped their captive's hands and one foot
together behind him.
"There now," said Winslow, as he relieved the officer of his weapon.
"Hop back to the bridge and look after your comrade. He fell on the
turnpike a while ago and I'm afraid he hurt his head. We'll have to
be going."
"Shall we take the horse?" asked Ethel.
"No," replied her companion, beginning to throw clods at the animal,
"we'll simply run him away. As for us, we are safer on foot, and
will in the long run make better time."
"You are not tired, are you?" he asked, as they turned into the
roadway again.
"No," she replied, "only a bit tired and weak from my scare. How far
have we come?"
"Fifteen miles, perhaps; I really hardly know; we've been
interrupted so much."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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