"With God's aid," he said, "I will save them or sacrifice myself."
As for fighting, should fighting prove necessary, his mind was made up. The conversation of the villains under the bridge had settled that question.
Instead, therefore, of waiting for the friend who was to help him on his journey, he leaped up from under the bridge, and set out at a fast walk to follow his pursuers back to town.
He had travelled but a mile or two when he saw the farmer driving towards him in a wagon.
"Are you lost? are you crazy?" cried the astonished old man. "You are going in the wrong direction! The men have been to my house, searched it, and passed on. Get in! get in!"
"I will," said Penn; "but, Mr. Ellerton, you must turn back."
He briefly related his adventure under the bridge. The old man listened with increasing amazement.
"You are right! you are right!" he said. "We must get word to Stackridge, somehow!" And turning his wagon about, he drove back over the road as fast as his horse could carry them.
It was sunset when they reached his house. There they unharnessed his horse and saddled him. The old man mounted.
"I'll do my best," he said, "to see Stackridge, or some of them, in season. If I fail, may be you will succeed. But you'd better keep in the woods till dark."