"Well, I must be travelling," said Augustus.
"And I must be looking for that miserable schoolmaster."
So saying the young men arose from their cool seats on the stones,—Lysander placing his hand, to steady himself, on the edge of the butment within an inch of Penn's leg.
Darkness, however, favored the fugitive; and they passed out from the shadow of the bridge without suspecting that they had held confidential discourse within arms' length of the man they were seeking to destroy. They ascended the bank, mounted their horses, and took leave of each other,—Bythewood and his black man riding north, while Sprowl hastened to rejoin his companions in the search for the schoolmaster.
XXI.
THE RETURN INTO DANGER.
Trembling with excitement Penn got down from the butment, and peering over the bank, saw his enemies in the distance.
What was to be done? Had he thought only of his own safety, his way would have been clear. But could he abandon his friends? forsake Virginia and her father when the toils of villany were tightening around them? leave Stackridge and his compatriots to their fate, when it might be in his power to forewarn and save them?
How he, alone, suspected, pursued, and sorely in need of assistance himself, was to render assistance to others, he did not know. He did not pause to consider. He put his faith in the overruling providence of God.