halted and listened. A faint rumbling of wheels greeted his ear, but it was not sufficiently distinct for him to determine from what direction it came. He concluded that it must be toward the village, and again lashed his horse and urged him ahead.
HE STRAINED HIS EYES TO LOOK AHEAD, BUT COULD NOT DISCERN OBJECTS AT ANY DISTANCE.
As he entered the streets of Dalton he began to feel a misgiving that he had been outwitted. But not a single chance must be cast aside, and he neither turned nor slackened his pace. Down the main thoroughfare, and around the corner of a street which led to the livery-stable, he proceeded, and there he saw a horse trotting briskly along, drawing a buggy containing a single occupant.
“Ha! my man,” he thought, “you’re too sure! You thought you were so far ahead that I couldn’t come up with you, but I’ll show you in a moment your mistake!”
Speaking a word to his horse, he dashed on with renewed speed, and was soon but a rod or two behind the buggy. He thought it strange that his approach was apparently not noticed, that there was no attempt to distance him, or avoid him in any way. He whom he supposed to be Carlos Conrad simply looked around once, and then drove on, neither slackening nor increasing his speed.
“Ah, I have it,” thought the pursuer. “He doesn’t know I have a horse. He didn’t see him under the shade of the trees. He thinks I am a mile off, and that some innocent cove is following him. I’ll tackle him now.”
Acting promptly on this theory, he galloped up to the side of the buggy supposed to contain Carlos.
The clouds by this time were quite thick, and rendered everything indistinct to the vision. The pursuer hailed his man:
“Hallo, stranger, hold on!”
The stranger looked around, and said:
“What do you want?”
His apparent unconcern startled the murderer, who, with a sudden impulse, leaped from his horse’s back into the buggy. The action was so quick as to meet with no repulse. The lines were jerked from the driver’s hands, his neck was encircled with a strong arm, and he was quickly chocked into submissiveness. The horse was reined in and stood still. The murderer’s horse, a well-trained animal, also halted and stood motionless.
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