d grew apace, and I fell to thinking dismally of the plight we were in.
How things had been against us in these last days! First there was losing
the Why Not? and that was bad enough; second, there was the being known
by the Excise for smugglers, and perhaps for murderers; third and last,
there was the breaking of my leg, which made escape so difficult. But,
most of all, there came before my eyes that grey face turned up against
the morning sun, and I thought of all it meant for Grace, and would have
given my own life to call back that of our worst enemy.

Then Elzevir sat up, stretching himself like one waking out of sleep, and
said: 'We must be gone. They will not be back for some time yet, and,
when they come, will not think to search closely for us hereabouts; but
that we cannot risk, and must get clear away. This leg of thine will keep
us tied for weeks, and we must find some place where we can lie hid, and
tend it. Now, I know such a hiding-hole in Purbeck, which they call
Joseph's Pit, and thither we must go; but it will take all the day to get
there, for it is seven miles off, and I am older than I was, and thou too
heavy a babe to carry over lightly.'

I did not know the pit he spoke of, but was glad to hear of some place,
however far off, where I could lie still and get ease from the pain. And
so he took me in his arms again and started off across the fields.

I need not tell of that weary journey, and indeed could not, if I wished;
for the pain went to my head and filled me with such a drowsy anguish
that I knew nothing except when some unlooked-for movement gave me a
sharper twinge, and made me cry out. At first Elzevir walked briskly, but
as the day wore on went slower, and was fain more than once to put me
down and rest, till at last he could only carry me a hundred yards at a
time. It was after noon, for the sun was past the meridian, and very hot
for the time of year, when the face of the country began to change; and
instead of the short sward of the open down, sprinkled with tiny white
snail-shells, the ground was brashy with flat stones, and divided up into
tillage fields. It was a bleak wide-bitten place enough, looking as if
'twould never pay for turning, and instead of hedges there were dreary
walls built of dry stone without mortar. Behind one of these walls,
broken down in places, but held together with straggling ivy, and
buttressed here and there with a bramble-bush, Elzevir put me down at
leng