'Let go,' shouted Drownlands, 'or I'll bring the flail down on your hands.'
'You may break them. I will cling with my teeth.'
He brandished the flail angrily.
Then Zita bowed herself, picked up the second flail, and, planting herself across the way, said—
'You are bad and you are cruel. I cannot get you to come to my father for the asking. I will drive you to him—drive you with the flail; I will force you to go.'
He tried to pass the girl, but she would not budge; and before the whirling flapper and her threatening attitude, the horse recoiled and almost threw himself and his rider down the embankment into the drove.
Drownlands uttered a curse, and again attempted to push past, but was again driven back by Zita.
'Take care, or I will ride you down,' he threatened; then shivered, as he recalled how that a few minutes previously Jake Runham had used the same threat to him.
He considered a moment.
He could not allow this girl to retain the flail she had picked up. It was evidence against him. Every one in Burnt Fen, every one in Weldenhall and Soham Fens, would hear of the contest at Ely before the Cheap Jack van. If that flail were known to have been found on the embankment, it would be known at once where it was that Runham fell into the Lark. It might be surmised that a struggle had there taken place, and marks of the struggle would be looked for.