[1]. See Jack Hazard and his Fortunes, Chapters XXIII. and XXIV.
He stopped running, but kept on at a fast walk, still hoping to pass the man and his dog without trouble. He was bareheaded, having left his hat behind in the court-room. That circumstance was alone sufficient to excite attention; and Duffer looked sharply at him.
“Go back there!”
“I’m in a hurry, I can’t go back,” said Jack, continuing to walk on.
“You’re on my land! you can’t cross here!”
“I can cross farther up, then.”
“No, ye can’t!” said Duffer, brandishing a long black whip which he had been trailing behind him. “I owns this ’ere land, from the pond to the street. Go back the way you come, or I lets my dorg on to ye!”
“I want to pass, and it’s as far going back to get off your land as it is going on,” said Jack, anxiously; for he could hear the shouts in the village, and he feared that pursuers were already on his track.
“You don’t cross this ’ere tater patch!” said Duffer, furiously. “I know ye! Ye had a hand in killing my t’ other dorg!”
“No, I didn’t,” said Jack. “He was killed in a fair fight with my dog,—ask Grodson! Let me go on, and I never ’ll set foot on your land again.”