Page 299 - A Jacobite Exile

north, we might have had a lot of difficulty in getting acquainted with him."

As soon as the man had ridden past they leapt to their feet, and, at a run,
kept along the hedge. He had started at a brisk trot, but when, a quarter of a

mile on, they reached a gate, and looked up the road after him, they saw to
their satisfaction that the horse had already fallen into a walk.

"He does not mean to go far from Barnet," Charlie exclaimed. "If he had
been bound farther, he would have kept on at a trot. We will keep on

behind the hedges as long as we can. If he were to look back and see us
always behind him, he might become suspicious."

They had no difficulty in keeping up with the horseman. Sometimes, when
they looked out, he was a considerable distance ahead, having quickened

his pace; but he never kept that up long, and by brisk running, and dashing
recklessly through the hedges running at right angles to that they were
following, they soon came up to him again.

Once, he had gone so far ahead that they took to the road, and followed it

until he again slackened his speed. They thus kept him in sight till they
neared Barnet.

"We can take to the road now," Harry said. "Even if he should look round,
he will think nothing of seeing two men behind him. We might have turned

into it from some by-lane. At any rate, we must chance it. We must find
where he puts up for the night."