Now plainly these men do
not know where we are bound, or they would not follow us so closely. Best
of all, too, they love to catch us at mass for then they have no trouble
in proving their case. I think then that they will not try to take us
till we reach the Manor Lodge; and we must do our best to shake them off
before that. Now the plot I have thought of is this, that--should it
prove as I think it will--we should ride slower than ever, as if our
horses were weary, down the road along which Robert will have come after
he has joined us, and turn down as if to go to Kingsdown, and when we
have gone half a mile, and are well round that sharp corner, double back
to it, and hide all in the wood at the side. They will follow our tracks,
and there are no houses at which they can ask, and there seem no
travellers either on these by-roads, and when they have passed us we
double back at the gallop, and down the next turning, which will bring us
in a couple of miles to Stanstead. There is a maze of roads thereabouts,
and it will be hard if we do not shake them off; for there is not a
house, marked upon the map, at which they can ask after us."
Isabel did her utmost to understand, but the horror of the pursuit had
overwhelmed her. The quiet woods into which they had passed again after
leaving Fawkham Green now seemed full of menace; the rough road, with the
deep powdery ruts and the grass and fir-needles at the side, no longer
seemed a pleasant path leading home, but a treacherous device to lead
them deeper into danger.
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