Here he waited like the tiger, ready to take the fatal leap, and plunge his fangs into the bosom of his victim.

Nor did he wait long.
Ralph was soon upon his steed, and on the road; but the Providence that watches over and protects the innocent was with him, and it happened, most fortunately, that just before he reached the point at which his enemy stood in watch, the badness of the road had compelled those who travelled it to diverge aside for a few paces into a little by-path, which, at a little distance beyond, and when the bad places had been rounded, brought the traveller again into the proper path.

Into this by-path, the horse of Colleton took his way; the rider neither saw the embarrassments of the common path, nor that his steed had turned aside from them.

It was simply providential that the instincts of the horse were more heedful than the eyes of the horseman.
It was just a few paces ahead, and on the edge of a boggy hollow that Guy Rivers had planted himself in waiting.

The tread of the young traveller's steed, diverging from the route which he watched, taught the outlaw the change which it was required that he should also make in his position.
"Curse him!" he muttered.