'
'He and I are of different opinions, as we have been more than once on
our way here,' was the short reply.
'So I was thinking before you came out, for he has felt your spurs, poor
beast.'
The stranger adjusted his coat-collar about his face, and made no
answer.
'You'll know me again, I see,' he said, marking the young fellow's
earnest gaze, when he had sprung into the saddle.
'The man's worth knowing, master, who travels a road he don't know,
mounted on a jaded horse, and leaves good quarters to do it on such a
night as this.'
'You have sharp eyes and a sharp tongue, I find.'
'Both I hope by nature, but the last grows rusty sometimes for want of
using.'
'Use the first less too, and keep their sharpness for your sweethearts,
boy,' said the man.
So saying he shook his hand from the bridle, struck him roughly on the
head with the butt end of his whip, and galloped away; dashing through
the mud and darkness with a headlong speed, which few badly mounted
horsemen would have cared to venture, even had they been thoroughly
acquainted with the country; and which, to one who knew nothing of the
way he rode, was attended at every step with great hazard and danger.
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