They missed, though I felt the bullets whizz past my head and, unable to rein in my horse, I felt myself being carried straight towards the two robbers, who, drawing hangers, waited my approach. When within a few paces they hurled their discharged weapons full at my head, one grazing the top of my steel cap, while the other I turned aside with my sword. Whether I liked it or not, I had to close, and, turning slightly, I avoided passing between them, as they had intended. Our blades met without effect; then, on succeeding in drawing in my horse, I found that the Villains had resumed their flight, but in a slightly different direction to their previous course, and that this incident had enabled Lawson to gain considerably. My senses were cooled by the encounter, so, permitting the sergeant to overtake me, we rode in company, regardless of Ralph, who was still floundering along a quarter of a mile behind, our eyes fixed upon the two fugitives. Suddenly we heard a yell of terror, and saw a frantic effort on the part of the robbers to pull in their steeds. For a brief moment it seemed as if the horses were sliding on their haunches, their riders leaning back till we could see the tips of their noses above their black masks as they tore at the animals' reins. Another instant and they had disappeared, and it was only the greater stretch of intervening ground that saved us from a similar fate. Hastily dismounting, we cautiously approached the place where the villains had disappeared, and, to our horror, we found that they had fallen down an unfenced pit, the like of which abound in the chalk downs of the south of England, their presence being almost invisible even at a close distance, save to a trained eye. Looking over the treacherous edge, we saw a mangled heap of motionless men and horses at the bottom of the pit. "It has saved us a dirty business," remarked the sergeant grimly, "for, had we taken them alive, 'twould have meant a long wait at the nearest town when we had handed them over to the authorities." "Are they killed?" I asked. "Ay," replied he. "'Tis certain they were strangers in this part, and knew not the existence of this pitfall." "We can do no good staying here," I observed as Granville rode up, spent and breathless with his exertion. "Let's make our way back to the road." It was a long ride, for in the excitement of the pursuit time and distance had been ignored, but, on regaining the highway, we found that Colonel Firestone and the man we had rescued in timely fashion were engaged in wordy strife, the latter having possessed himself of his horse. After tendering his thanks at our opportune arrival, the stranger exclaimed, "I see ye are all birds of a feather, and, in accordance with the times, we should now be flying at each other's throats. But I rejoice, in spite of party strife, that Englishmen are still willing to help one another in adversity."