"Shall there be always something in the way of my revenge ?" Such was his temper, that everything which baffled him in his object heightened his ferocity to a sort of madness.

But this did not prevent his prompt exertion to retrieve the lost ground.

The "turn-out" did not continue fifty yards, before it again wound into the common road, and remembering this, the outlaw hurried across the little copse which separated the two routes for a space.

The slow gait at which Colleton now rode, unsuspicious of danger, enabled his enemy to gain the position which he sought, close crouching on the edge of the thicket, just where the roads again united.

Here he waited--not many seconds.
The pace of our traveller, we have said, was slow.