Why are you so interested ?" "That is my affair," he replied, insolently, and walked across the open square, with shoulders squared.
Irritated that I had even condescended to question him, I turned back up the road to where the men were yet busy about the wagons, spoke a few words to Duval, he explaining to me the best route toward the river crossing at Burlington, and then swung into the saddle and sent the black forward to the crest of the ridge.

The animal was restive, and hard to control; I cast a single glance backward to where the blaze of the fires lit up the busy figures below, and then plunged forward into the black night, unable to see the road, but trusting the instincts of the horse.
I permitted the animal to go his own gait, and for a mile or more he kept up a hot gallop, finally tiring to a trot.

By this time my eyes had accustomed themselves sufficiently to the gloom so as to dimly perceive the outline of the highway, and the contour of the surrounding country.
It was not a thickly settled region, although we passed two houses, and several cultivated fields, the latter unfenced.

Duval had spoken of a turn to the westward, but I perceived no branching of the road, and began to wonder if we had not passed the spot during that first rush.

So far as I could judge from the few stars visible we were travelling almost due north.