Free An Impetuous Miss by Mary Chase Comstock

replied with an air of great experience. “There's sights in London, I hear tell, that sets a man off the country for life.”
    “ Oh, I'd like to know what!” exclaimed Martin. “This is an adventure I wouldn't miss, and London is sure to be a wonder, but I'll always go back to Sparrowell Hall. That's the life for me.”
    “ You may well think that now,” Tom went on in a jaded tone, “but we shall hear a different tune a few weeks hence.”

Chapter Six
     
    The remainder of their journey was not to be so uneventful as the first day had promised. The Ivy Tree had proved unremarkable except in the blandness of the food and the dinginess of the decor, and the remaining half day's ride from there to London should have passed quickly. The party had hardly been on the road half an hour, however, when the sound of galloping hoofbeats behind them intruded on the quiet of the morning.
    As the horseman came alongside the first car riage, the sharp report of a musket's fire brought the horses to a frenzied halt and the sound of a muffled voice could be heard by the shocked passengers, “Stand and deliver or be drownded in a pool of blood!” Then the musket was fired into the air once again.
    Cat peeked out the window of the carriage in an understandably cautious manner and took stock of the situation. “I'll just be a moment,” she said to her white-faced companions. “You two stay right here.”
    Before they could protest, she hopped lightly from the carriage onto the lane. Before her, on a horse whose sagging bones and lethargic eye bore witness to the end of a long career at the plow, sat a figure cu riously draped, bundled, and masked, wearing an obviously false beard of an unlikely reddish hue.
    “ Your money or your life!” the man growled, pointing his musket at her.
    “ Indeed?” Cat returned coolly. “And how do you propose to convince me that I should part with either?”
    “ I would not hesitate to blow that pretty head from here to kingdom come if you'll not open your purse,” he rumbled in ominous tones, waving his musket dramatically.
    “ I see,” said Cat with slow deliberation, “but how you will contrive to do so without reloading that antique (for you have fired it twice, you know) I have no idea; however, I am sure we have no intention of discommoding ourselves further today. You may do as you please, but we shall drive on—and I assure you my men shall now have their arms at the ready.” With that speech, Cat turned her back on the flustered bandit and was about to reenter the carriage when the sound of yet another horseman could be heard approaching at a gallop. This was beginning to be quite a curious day, Cat decided.
    “ Flee while you may, villain! Flee or meet a bloody death!” the advancing rider called out, firing his musket and waving it wildly about. Indeed, Cat felt a good deal more apprehension at the ineptitude of this apparent rescue than she had at the attack which had seemingly occasioned it. As this latest horseman charged forward in a suffocating cloud of dust, the first uttered a gasping curse, turned his mount, and escaped over the brow of the hill at the best gallop his sorry beast could manage.
    Opening the door to her carriage, Cat leaned in side and announced, “Deliverance appears to be at hand, ladies. Feel free to compose yourselves.” Caesar and Brutus, however, taking full advantage of the open door, now flung themselves through it furiously just as the second rider reined in amidst them. Belatedly assuming the roles of fierce protectors, the two dogs wove tight circles around and through the horse's hooves, barking incessantly, and causing the poor creature to rear and throw his hapless rider. This accomplished, the two canine heroes now busied themselves with worrying and tearing at the clothing of the newcomer who was crying out in some distress.
    “ Caesar! Brutus! Back at once,” Cat commanded, but, as usual, it took the combined efforts of the