“Here, you brats!” he shouted. “Have you seen a Puritan officer gallop by this way?”
“No, we have been skipping,” she replied, sturdily.
“A wounded man on a bay horse.”
“We have not seen him—he hath not been here,” said Nan.
“Curse him! What a dance he hath led us! How a man that’s been twice hit can ride across country that fashion, beats me. The devil must be in him. Come, mate, we must to horse again, and push on—the plaguey fellow shan’t give us the slip.”
They hastened back to rejoin their comrades, and Nan looked wistfully after them.
“I hope they won’t find him,” she said, shivering. “If they do they’ll kill him.”
“I’m glad we’re not men,” said Meg, picking up her skipping-rope. “We shall never have to kill folk.”
By this time Gabriel had recovered his senses, and the sight of the Malvern Hills roused him to the remembrance that he was near Bosbury; with a vague idea of getting Hilary to bind up his wounds for him, and then of somehow reaching his father, he staggered to his feet, hoping to find Harkaway at no great distance. The horse, however, was nowhere to be seen, and, with faltering steps, he made his way with great difficulty across the field to a gap which he saw in the hedge. The children’s voices reached him, and helped him to persevere.
“Here each bachelor may choose