The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce/Volume 3/An Arrest

AN ARREST
HAVING murdered his brother-in-law, Orrin Brower of Kentucky
was a fugitive from justice. From the county jail where he had been
confined to await his trial he had escaped by knocking down his jailer with an iron bar, robbing him of his keys and, opening the outer door, walking out into the night. The jailer being unarmed, Brower got no weapon with which to defend his recovered liberty. As
soon as he was out of the town he had the folly to enter a forest; this was many years ago, when that region was wilder than it is now.
The night was pretty dark, with neither moon nor stars visible, and as Brower had never dwelt thereabout, and knew nothing of the lay of the land, he was, naturally, not long in losing himself. He could not have said if he were getting farther away from the town or going back to it—a most important matter to Orrin Brower. He knew that in either case a posse of citizens with a pack of bloodhounds would soon be on his track and ​his chance of escape was very slender; but he did not wish to assist in his own pursuit. Even an added hour of freedom was worth
having.
Suddenly he emerged from the forest into an old road, and there before him saw, indistinct

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