“An officer on duty, my man, who doesn’t care to be trifled with. There are too many Indians and spies loose in these mountains for me to trust strangers. If you’re a peaceable farmer, you’re as sulky a looking one as I have seen. How far is it to Derryfield?”

“Four miles,” said the sullen stranger, gruffly. Then he turned away as if the colloquy was terminated, but the hussar was not going to let him off so easy.

“Halt!” he again cried, in his sharp tones, covering the other with his pistol. “Move another step, and it’s your last.”

The stranger obeyed the order with his usual sullen air, but the hussar’s voice showed that he was in earnest.

“Look here, Mr. Officer,” began the stranger, in a tone of injury, “I don’t see what you have against me to treat me in this way. Let me alone, or by the Lord, we’ll see if my rifle ain’t as good as your pistol.”

The hussar was close to him, as he spoke, and he was already beginning to handle his long rifle, when Adrian’s horse, obedient to his master’s will, made a sudden leap, which brought the soldier’s left hand to the shoulder of the recluse.

In a moment the muzzle of the pistol was at the sullen stranger’s ear, as Adrian sternly ordered him:

“Fire in the air, quick, or I fire here. Not a word. Fire!”

The sullen man cast one savage look up at the hussar’s face, but the menace he met there was so unyielding that he obeyed the order.

The harmless rifle-bullet whistled skywards, and the sharp report waked the echoes for miles around, as the now disarmed man stood glaring defiantly up at the hussar.

“Now drop your gun,” said Adrian, sternly.

The stranger obeyed, still with the same scowl.

“It’s my impression,” pursued the officer, grimly, “that you’re a spy of some sort, or you’d have treated a patriot[Pg 25] officer with more courtesy. Unbuckle your belt, and drop it. I see you have a knife still. No fooling, sir. I shall be fully justified in shooting you if you hesitate.”

[Pg 25]

The stranger, without a word, did as he was told, still looking up at the hussar with the same defiant scowl as ever. The soldier, still keeping his strange captive under his eye, dived into the gay 

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