urpose
against all his reasons. The boy was impulsive and quick tempered,
and finding me obdurate after ten minutes' battery of argument, he
flung away in a huff, got up into the saddle, and bidding me go
hang for an obstinate mule he galloped back to the turnpike.

And so I set my face once more for the south. Missing my staff,
which I had thrown away in my haste, I cut myself a large hazel
switch from a copse by the roadside, promising myself a stouter
weapon when I should arrive at a town.

My heart was light: had I not begun to pay Dick Cludde interest on
his crown piece? I was inexpressibly glad that I had been able to
defeat his outrageous scheme, and thinking of this, I wondered why
he had driven southward instead of to his father's house beyond
Shrewsbury. My conjecture was that, knowing what a hue and cry Mr.
Allardyce would raise if he believed his niece had been conveyed
thither, the Cluddes had arranged to remove her to a distance until
the legal matter then pending should have been decided in their
favor. I remembered hearing Dick once speak of some relatives at
Worcester, and in all likelihood that had been his destination.

To have encountered me within so few miles of Shrewsbury must have
mightily surprised him. He had known of my intention in setting
out; 'twas common talk in Shrewsbury; and, having passed me at
Harley near two months before this, must have supposed (if he
thought of me at all) that I had long since reached my destination.
What he would infer now I did not trouble to consider, and as he
was to have rejoined his ship about this time, I did not expect any
news of my adventure would be carried back to Shrewsbury. It
crossed my mind that he might possibly seek to waylay me on the
road and take vengeance for his discomfiture, but reflecting that
he would scarcely suppose my journey, interrupted for so long,
would be resumed at once, I was in nowise disquieted; only I
resolved again to buy a stout cudgel, to have a weapon in case of
need.

By noon I arrived at Bewdley, where, being mighty hungry, I made a
good dinner of beef and cabbage at an inn. When I started again, I
had the good luck to get a lift in a farmer's gig, which carried me
for several miles, so that I reached Worcester without difficulty
that night. After a sound sleep at the Ram's Head I sallied out,
bought a fine staff of knobby oak at a shop in the High Street, and
after viewing the outside of the cathedral (the doors