Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/177

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

again at another point. If he could not reach the mountain at this attempt he was lost. He might even not be able to make this stronghold though he crossed the road safely. So Redcoat turned to the heavily patrolled roadway, knowing it was his only hope.

He approached the road by a thin cover of bushes just as he had done the week before and once again he heard the low sweet tinkle of bells, as he had in the first instance, but this time it was not a load of logs, but Kitty Mason driving her father's horse in a light sleigh. Just as the team neared the clump of bushes which fringed the roadway, Kitty was amazed to see a great beautiful red fox flounder out of the cover and fall in the road just ahead of her horse. There was blood on its shoulder, and Kitty divined at once that he was badly wounded. The fox was not dead but he lay panting with his breath coming in quick hard sobs like those of a child that is trying not to cry. Then the import of the two shots which the girl had just heard, and the cries of the oncoming