hat means _nought_. The lasses they cry
murder, if you do but kiss 'em."

"Oh, Tom Leicester, it _is_ murder! It's a duel, a fight to the death,
unless we are in time to prevent them."

"A jewel!" cried Master Leicester, his eyes glittering with delight. "I
never saw a jewel. Don't you hold him in for me, Mistress: gallop down
this slope as hard as you can pelt; it is grass under foot, and ye can't
lose the tracks, and I shall be sure to catch ye in the next field."

The young savage was now as anxious to be in at the death as Kate was to
save life. As he spoke, he gave her horse a whack on the quarter with
his stick, and away she went full gallop, and soon put a hundred yards
between her and Tom.

The next field was a deep fallow, and the hard furrows reduced her to a
trot; and before she got out of it Tom was by her side.

"Didn't I tell you?" said he. "I'd run you to Peyton Hall for a pot o'
beer."

"Oh, you good, brave, clever boy!" said Kate, "how fortunate I am to
have you! I think we shall be in time."

Tom was flattered.

"Why, you see, I am none of Daddy Leicester's breed," said he. "I'm a
gentleman's by-blow, if you know what that is."

"I can't say I do," said Kate; "but I know you are very bold and
handsome, and swift of foot; and I know my patron saint has sent you to
me in my misery. And, oh, my lad, if we are in time,--what can I do for
you? Are you fond of money, Tom?"

"That I be,--when I can get it."

"Then you shall have all I have got in the world, if you get me there in
time to hinder mischief."

"Come on!" shouted Tom, excited in his turn, and took the lead; and not
a word more passed till they came to the foot of a long hill. Then said
Tom,--

"Once we are at top of this, they can't fight without our seeing 'em.
That is Scutchemsee Nob: you can see ten miles all round from there."

At this information Kate uttered an ejaculation, and urged her horse
forward.

The first part of this hill, which stood between her and those whose
tracks she followed, was grass; then came a strip of turnips; then on
the bleak top a broad piece of heather. She soon cantered over the
grass, and left Tom so far behind he could not quite catch her in the
turnips. She entered the heather, but here she was much retarded by the
snow-drifts and the ups and downs of the rough place. But she struggled
on bravely, still leading.

She fixed her eyes earnestly on the ridge, whence she could cry to the
combata