When they find that the men have all fallen, sword in hand,
that two of them are evidently Stranglers, and that their girdles have
not been searched, nor the packs on their horses opened, it will be
seen that it was not the work of robbers. I don't suppose they will
know what to make of it, but I should think they would most likely
conclude that these men have been attacked by some other party, and
that it is a matter of some feud or private revenge--though, even
then, the fact that the bodies have not been searched for valuables,
or the baggage or animals carried off, will beat them altogether."
By this time, the horses were ready for the start, and after looking
up and down the long, straight road, to see that no one was in sight,
they issued from the wood and continued their journey. Being anxious,
now, to get away as far as possible from the scene of the struggle,
instead of going on to Magree as they had intended, they turned off by
the first country road on the left-hand side, and made for Savandroog,
which they could see towering up above the plain. When within three
miles of it, they halted in a large wood. Here, as soon as the horses
had been unsaddled, and the fire lighted, their talk naturally turned
to the fight they had gone through.
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