He turned his head and stopped his panting for a moment. "I could not save her," he gasped; "Merrim--" and here he fell back in my arms a dead man. We covered him hastily with the fallen leaves, and, taking his horse for our guide's use, spurred grimly on. There was no doubt now. The villain's plot had succeeded only too well, and the fair innocents were already delivered over to his clutches. At a little cluster of houses in the valley we halted a moment longer. "Has a troop passed this way?" asked our guide of a cow-herd. "Surely," said he, "they will scarce be over the hill by now." "Carried they two women in their company?" He laughed and said no. "Have not two women been carried this way lately?" "I'll be hanged if there was a sign of a woman," said he. We looked blank at one another. The fellow seemed to speak true. Yet his story agreed not with that of the dying man. There was naught but to spur on, and by all means come level with the villain, wherever he was. As we commenced the steep ascent, we could discern the moving figures of horsemen on the skyline above--as it seemed to us, in two bands, one of which suddenly disappeared on the other side, while the other, numbering some half-dozen men, made southward along the ridge. As we came higher we saw these last still there, moving hurriedly to and fro, as though seeking what they found not. It could hardly be us they looked for, for their faces were set southward, nor was it till we came within a mile of where they stood that they turned and suddenly perceived us. Then they too vanished below the skyline and we lost them. By the time we reached the ridge top, the first party was clattering far down the plain, raising a cloud of dust at their heels, and, as it seemed, pushing on with all speed to their journey's end. Of the other party for a while we saw nothing, till presently our guide pointed to them as they stole from out a wood below us and suddenly broke into a canter in a southward direction. It seemed to us their desire was, by doubling on their track, to regain once more the ridge on which we had first discovered them. Whereupon, smelling mischief, I called to my men, and, turning after them, gave chase. 'Twas a fool's errand! For, whatever their purpose had been, they abandoned it, and half-an-hour later we spied them striking westward once more, as in haste to overtake their fellows. So near upon them were we by this time, that not only could we count their number, which was seven, but could spy the feather on their leader's hat, by which I knew for certain that this was indeed the man I sought. For an hour and more we followed close on his heels, sighting him now, missing him now, and neither nearer nor further for all our riding.