"Ay, safe enough but that's the rub. If we could stretch a mile or two
between us, so as to cross before they heave in sight, I could take you
to a place where the whole United States would never find us out--but
they gain on us--I hear them every moment more and more near. The sounds
are very clear to-night--a sign of rain, perhaps to-morrow. On, sir!
Push! The pursuers must hear us, as we hear them."
"But I hear them not--I hear no sounds but our own--" replied the youth.
"Ah, that's because you have not the ears of an outlaw. There's a
necessity for using our ears, one of the first that we acquire, and I
can hear sounds farther, I believe, than any man I ever met, unless it
be Guy Rivers. He has the ears of the devil, when his blood's up. Then
he hears further than I can, though I'm not much behind him even then.
Hark! they are now winding the hill not more than half a mile off, and
we hear nothing of them now until they get round--the hill throws the
echo to the rear, as it is more abrupt on that side than on this.
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