The odds were heavily against even me, in strong and lusty
youth; how much more heavily against Uncle Moses, who was perhaps
three times my age!
Already I was slackening my pace to keep with him. And we were
cumbered with the muskets we had seized--heavy weapons, and, when I
came to think of it, likely to prove of little use to us, for we
could not pause in the race to light matches, nor, once they were
discharged, should we have time to recharge them. Yet I dared not
suggest we should fling them down; they were our only weapons save
for a knife that Uncle Moses carried at his belt, and perchance if
it came to a fight at close quarters we could wield them with some
effect as clubs. So we pounded on, saying never a word, I
husbanding my breath, the negro panting hard.
We came to the edge of the forest land bordering the estate, and
when we had plunged into it for some little distance Moses was fain
to stop to recover his wind.
"Dey hab not started yet, massa," he gasped.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"'Cos dere is no sound of de dogs," he replied.
"Should we hear them three miles away?"
"Oh, yes, massa; de wind carry de sound miles and miles."
"We have luck on our side, then. Can you run again?"
"Yes, massa. Po' Uncle Moses hain't no chicken now, but he hain't
done yet."
And then we set off again through the forest, at a more moderate
pace now, for the way ran no longer clear. The word "forest" to a
stay-at-home means a tract of soft, springy turf, with tall trees
and pleasant glades and clumps of bracken that shelter rabbits and
other small creatures of the woodland.
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