In the mean time the soldiers are waiting for me in Ballymacan, and so I must attend to my duty, Harry." "Is it upon the strength of the blotted letter you got this morning, sir, that you are now acting" ?" "No, sir; but upon the strength of a sure spy dispatched this day to the premises.

I am a little too shrewd now, Master Harry, to act solely upon anonymous information.

I have been led too many devil's dances by it in my time, to be gulled in my old age on the strength of it." He immediately prepared himself for the excursion, mounted his horse, that was caparisoned in a military saddle, the holsters furnished with a case of pistols, which, with a double case that he had on his person and two daggers, constituted his weapons of offence and defence.
Their path lay directly to the south for about two miles.

Having traversed this distance they reached cross-roads, one of which branched towards the left and was soon lost in a rough brown upland, into which it branched by several little pathways that terminated in little villages or solitary farmer's houses.

For about two miles more they were obliged to cross a dark reach of waste moor, where the soil was strong and well capable of cultivation.