He had already inspected there once since supper, but he knew the
effect that another inspection would be likely to produce. Nothing
goes further toward making men careful and ready at the word than
incessant and unexpected but quite quietly performed inspection of
minutest details.
He produced the effect of setting the men on the qui vive without
alarming them.
Suddenly, the farthest advanced sentry's challenge rang out.
"Frie-e-e-e-nd!" came the answer, in nasal, high-pitched wail, but
the galloping continued.
"Halt, I tell you!" A breech-bolt clicked, and then another one.
They were little sounds, but they were different, and the guard could
hear them plainly. The galloping horse came on.
"Cra-a-a-a-ack!" went the sentry's rifle, and the flash of it spurted
for an instant across the road, like a sheet of lightning. And, just
as lightning might, it showed an instantaneous vision of a tired gray
horse, foam-flecked and furiously ridden, pounding down the road head-on.
The vision was blotted by the night again before any one could see
who rode the horse, or what his weapons were--if any--or form a theory
as to why he rode.
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