d and wounded him like a
dagger.

Then they rode long in silence.

Away they went, mile after mile, without rest and without pause,
through dales and over uplands, past meres and across rivers, and
still with the gathering blackness overhead.

What force of doom was spurring them on in this race against Life? It
was the depth of a Cumbrian winter, and the days were short. Clearly
they would never reach Penrith to-night. The delay at Hollowbank and
the shortened twilight before a coming snowstorm must curtail their
journey. They agreed to put up for the night at the inn at Askham.

As they approached that house of entertainment they observed that the
coach which had left Carlisle that morning was in the act of drawing
up at the door. It waited only while three or four passengers
alighted, and then drove on and passed them in its journey south.

Five hours hence it would pass the northward coach from Kendal.

When Ralph and Sim dismounted at the Fox and Hounds, at Askham, the
landlord came hastily to the door. He was a brawny dalesman, of
perhaps thirty. He was approaching the travellers with the customary
salutations of a host, when, checking himself, and coming to Ralph, he
said in a low tone, "I ask pardon, sir, but is your name
Ray?--Captain--hush!" he whispered; and then, becoming suddenly mute,
without waiting for a reply to his questions, he handed the horses to
a man who came up at the moment, and beckoned Ralph and Sim to follow
him, not through the front of the house, but towards the yard that led
to the back.

"Don't you know me?" he said as soon as he had conveyed them, as if by
stealth, into a little room detached from the rest of the house.

"Surely it's Brown? And how are you, my lad?"

"Gayly; and you seem gayly yourself, and not much altered since the
great days at Dunbar--only a bit lustier, mayhap, and with something
more of beard. I'll never forget the days I served under you!"

"That's well, Brown; but why did you bring us round here?" said Ralph.

"Hush!" whispered the landlord. "I've a pack of the worst bloodhounds
from Carlisle just come. They're this minute down by the coach. I know
the waistrels. They've been here before to-day. They'd know you to a
certainty, and woe's me if once the gommarels come abreast of you.
It's like I'd never forgive myself if my old captain came by any ill
luck in my house."

"How long will they stay?" "Until morning, it's like."

"How far is it to the n