“You’re getting off easy. It would be better for the settlements if I could bring myself to stop your plotting for all time. If we meet on the border there will be no quarter.” With that he leaped through the window and into the saddle and galloped away to enter the northern trail. The few warriors and slaves he passed recognized the horse and marvelled that their master should be riding north after sending the dogs and the fighting-men to the south. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER X THROUGH THE NECK OF THE BOTTLE Sevier’s lead in the race for freedom depended largely on the length of time McGillivray’s plight should remain undiscovered. The dogs would balk at going south and their keepers would soon realize the fugitive’s trail lay not in that direction. Given the sunlight, the borderer’s fleet mount would cover miles before a pursuit to the north could be organized. But night reduced the pace of all horses to a mediocre plane. Sevier entered the trail on the gallop but was quickly compelled to rein in and proceed cautiously. He rode with his ears tuned to catch the first note of alarm behind him. He had advanced but a short distance when he came to a shallow stream. He turned his horse into this and followed it slowly toward the east. He believed it was the same water Jackson had taken to in hiding his trail. On leaving it he swung back to strike into the Great War-Path, going by the map he carried in his mind. As he broke through a patch of broom-sage on the side of a low hill and entered the hard-packed path the sinister sound he had been anxiously anticipating floated to him on the evening air; a long-drawn bell-like note. “Sooner than I had expected,” he grimly muttered, shaking the reins. Now he rode recklessly, bending low to escape the clawing boughs and trusting to his horse to keep to the path. The animal soon splashed into running water. Reining in with some difficulty, he forced the animal to ascend the stream for a quarter of a mile, this time travelling due west. Then followed a repetition of his first manœuvre of beating back to the main trail. He planned to follow the Coosa until he had crossed into the Cherokee country when he would leave it below Turkey Town. Riding across country, he could pick up the river again and follow its headwaters until in the neighbourhood of the Hiwassee. On re-entering the trail he had covered but a short distance when he was startled again to hear the baying of the dogs. He had counted on the animals being delayed on reaching the two streams. Not knowing whether he had followed the streams west or east, the pack would have to course the streams in both directions before correcting the fault.