.
At last, far down the road, they saw horse and man, but going at a pace
it were mere folly to strive to overtake.

"We cannot catch him, and if we could he would defend himself now," said
the man who had guarded Lionel, in a voice of anger and concern. "Woe
the day! What will Sir Percival say?"

"His orders were that not an instant was he to be out of our sight,"
said the other man. "One or the other of us was to be on the watch."

"And he was not out of my sight," said the first man. "I only left his
side a moment before to look at the weathercock, and he stood alone just
where I left him as I turned back. We came through the doorway together,
then he pushed me fairly over and ran away. Woe the day! I shall lose
both respect and reward."

"How in the name of Great Caesar could he have gotten a message about the
horse?" asked the second man. "I have seen no one around."

"Nor have I," was the reply. "Beshrew me, but I could half believe the
Fairies or the witches have been about! It is a mystery indeed."

He added, gloomily:

"Now I must acquaint Sir Percival of what hath happened, and, by my
faith, I had rather take a ducking or show a broken limb."

It seemed to Sally that the men would never be done looking about,
peering here and there, but keeping near the house, as if bent on
finding some one who had helped Lionel's escape. It was not until the
middle of the morning that they went into the barn; then, with many a
halt, she finally let herself down from the tree, but only to hide
behind another.

Sally was thankful when at last she found herself in the road after
creeping from one cover to another. Then, with a slouching step, she
moved more rapidly away.

For a long time she kept steadily on, then, at a great field she was
passing, an ox team, loaded with marshy grass, came toward the road.

"Might I cotch a ride?" she said to the man who was guiding the oxen.

"Tired, are ye?" called the man.

"Tired I'll be afore I gets to Homeview," said Sally.

Homeview was a plantation near Williamsburg.

"Get ye up then," said the man. "I goes far as Humphrey Three Corners,
that's all."

By walking and begging many a mile's ride, and also by begging two or
three cups of milk, Sally reached Parson Kendall's near supper time, as
hungry and fagged a maiden as one would wish to see.

She managed to enter the porch and hang up the coat and hat without
being seen by any of the parson's family. Then she start