Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/168

 before us now, and that’s what we must follow.”

There was no further word until we had rode down into the flat, and come up with the spot on which I had pitched for the sally. The road here was bordered upon the one side by a tall hedge with a ditch, and upon t’other by a strip of green marsh; and a little below this we took up our stand beneath a clump of elms for rather more than half-an-hour. Zacchary grew very restless, but Creech was stolid enough by now, only turning an eye on the moon from time to time and cursing her for a spoil-sport. And I will admit that she was an interference, for she was a full wheel, and the road spread in a white light, twenty paces before us, so clear that the shadows of the trees lay in a dark wavering mesh along it. But if a gentleman of the road must be hindered by the impudent accidents of the weather, he had best give up roaming and settle down with empty pockets afore a mercer’s counter. By-and-bye Zacchary bent his ears to the ground.