"Yes, sir," answered Eric.
His preparations for the journey were soon made, for he had outgrown the few clothes he possessed when his mother died, and an old coat and knee breeches of his master's supplied the place of all other garments, so that he had but to turn up the high collar of the coat, button it a little closer, draw his long grey stocking-like cap a little further over his ears, and he was ready.
Betty came to the door again just as they were starting.
"The pain be awful bad agin," she said, with a keen look at Eric as she spoke.
"I'll have the doctor here soon. We shall him before he turns off to Leaburn;" and as she spoke, Tyler gave the signal to Peggy that she might move on, the chaise lurched a little, as the wheels were dragged out of a rut deeper than usual, and then they went on as fast as the holes and water-filled cart-tracks would permit.
Horse and riders were soon well bespattered with mud and water, for the road after the winter frosts and the present rain were more like a fresh-ploughed field than the king's highway and a main road to London. It was nobody's business in those times to keep the roads in order, and so the gig went floundering through the mud and water for the first mile without anything worse happening than an occasional bump and shake, with a good deal of straining on the part of Peggy, when the gig came to a positive standstill in one of the numerous holes.
Eric had gone on foot earlier in the morning, picking his way better than Peggy could, and now, seeing how slow their progress was, he proposed that he should get out, make his way to the cross roads, and tell the doctor to come straight on to Summerleigh before he went to Leaburn, while his master went back with Peggy and the gig.
But Tyler looked suspiciously at Eric as he made this proposal. Betty's words were still in his mind, and he was determined to find out whether the boy had been to the doctor, or whether he had shirked the disagreeable journey before. He had no cause to suspect the lad, for he had always done his work faithfully, and the horses fared better under his care than under old Toby's; but he knew that everybody else suspected him of evil practices, and now his own mind was a little affected by it, although the notion of its being witchcraft he could afford to laugh at by this time.
So to the lad's suggestion, he returned rather a surly answer, and they plunged on again through the mire and water, which effectually concealed the larger boulders with which this part of the road was liberally strewn.