making at him as if about to deliver point.

The two injured men, in answer to their leader's call, now made an
attempt to seize Hilary; but their effort was a faint-hearted one, for
on the young officer making a dash at them they gave way, and, waving
his hand to Sir Henry, he dashed across the road and along a winding
lane.

"A set of cowards!" he muttered. "The cutlass would hardly cut butter,
and it would want a hammer to drive in its point. Yes; you may shout.
You don't suppose I am coming back?"

He looked over his shoulder, and saw that Allstone and four men were now
after him, and that, if he meant to get away, he must use his last
remaining strength, for, clumsily as they ran, he was so tired with his
recent exertions that they were diminishing the distance fast.

"I wonder how many pounds of water I've got to carry?" muttered Hilary,
as he ran on, with the moisture still streaming from him, and making a
most unpleasant noise in his boots. "There's one good thing, though,"
he said: "it keeps on growing less."

It was a lonely, winding lane, with the trees meeting overhead, and the
sunshine raining down, as it were, in silvery streams upon the dappled
earth. On either side were ancient hazel clumps, with here and there a
majestic moss-covered oak or beech. It was, in fact, such a place as a
lover of nature would have been loath to quit; and even in his time of
need Hilary was not insensible to the beauties of the spot, but he could
not help feeling that the rutty roadway was atrocious.

"Well, it's as bad for them as it is for me," he said to himself as he
ran at a steady trot--now in full view, now hidden from his pursuers by
the windings of the lane.

"I wonder whether this is the lane they brought me along with that
jackass," he thought; and then, as his clothes grew lighter and stuck
less closely to his limbs, he began to wonder how long they would take
to dry.

"Well, that don't matter," he thought; "I shan't be allowed to sit down
and rest just yet."

He glanced back; and saw that his pursuers were out of sight, and he was
just about to take advantage of the fact and spring over into the wood
when they came in view again and uttered a shout.

"Anyone would think I was a hare and they were trying to run me down,"
he said. "Get out, you yelping curs!"

Hare-like, indeed; for he was looking back and thinking of his pursuers
so intently that he did not cast his eyes ahead beyond his steps t