"I will tell
you just how it was. When my horse took the wall and got their bullets
and tumbled down dead, the big man they called Zmai saw how it was, that
we were all coming over after them, and ran. He kept running through the
brambles and over the stones, and I thought he would soon turn and we
might have a fight, but he did not stop; and I could not let him get
away. It was our captain who said, 'We must take them prisoners,' was it
not so?"
"Yes; that was Mr. Armitage's wish."
"Then I saw that we were going toward the bridge, the one they do not
use, there at the deep ravine. I had crossed it once and knew that it was
weak and shaky, and I slacked up and watched him. He kept on, and just
before he came to it, when I was very close to him, for he was a slow
runner--yes? being so big and clumsy, he turned and shot at me with his
revolver, but he was in a hurry and missed; but he ran on. His feet
struck the planks of the bridge with a great jar and creaking, but he
kept running and stumbled and fell once with a mad clatter of the planks.
He was a coward with a heart of water, and would not stop when I called,
and come back for a little fight.
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