Peter Loon by Van Reid Page B

return.
    â€œWhat’s it to be then, Mr. Leach,” said this second in command. He seemed a reasonable enough fellow, now that everyone but Barrow had calmed somewhat.
    â€œI don’t want you following us, sir,” said Parson Leach. “It might be too tempting for Mr. Barrow to try and take her from us, and it will end in tragedy, I promise you. You may be no happier than ourselves if one of us were to be killed in such circumstances, for the law would surely hunt you down.”
    â€œHis law!” snarled Barrow. “His Great Men and his Congregational . . .” but the other man gave him such a look, that Barrow fell to muttering.
    â€œI am no kidnapper, you know that,” continued the parson, and when the man beside Barrow nodded, the parson said. “She fled her situation of her own accord, and it’s the law will determine things now. I am a law-abiding man, on the whole, and I will deliver her to decisive powers when we reach the next settlement.”
    â€œHow are we to know, if we can’t follow you,” said the rider.
    â€œWord will be sent, but I am not sure Mr. Tillage will want to appear for his daughter, at any rate, Lot and Sodom notwithstanding.”
    This reference was so keen and so final, that several gasps rose from the mob of men. Some looked a little horrified, suddenly, to be a part of such a business. It was amazing to Peter, how one sentence from Parson Leach could reverse the view these men took of their own behavior. Without much further hesitation, the pursuers turned about and headed for the point along the shore where Manasseh first detected them. By association, Barrow was tugged along with his mob, but he craned his head back and looked over his shoulder at the parson and his companions, till his horse mounted the far bank and carried him into the field beyond the forest and out of sight.

11

Concerning a Change in Plans, a Parting of the Ways, as Well as an Introduction to the Busy Abode of Captain Clay den as Governed by Mrs. Magnamous
    â€œTHIS DOESN’T LOOK TO BE STOPPING VERY SOON,” SAID MANASSEH Cutts, as he considered the rain. He might have thought the storm’s intentions immaterial if not for the shivering young woman among them. Her pale shift was flimsy enough, and her undergarments were in such short supply, that the severe soaking she had undergone rendered her appearance slighter still, adhering her clothes to her in such a manner as to be considered indecent. She seemed unaware of her pitiable state beyond the obvious fear for the consequences of her recent flight, and it was yet difficult to know the division of physical and emotional effects that caused her to shake so. She clung to Peter without motive, besides the desire to stay upright. Peter himself held her with less motive than he might have credited; he was greatly unnerved by the confrontation with Barlow and his followers.
    â€œGod bless you for standing with us,” said Parson Leach to Manasseh Cutts and Crispin Moss. The rain ran off the tip of the preacher’s long nose like water off an eaves. “Peter,” he said, brushing the slick from his face before raising his hood again, “you acted admirably. And Nora Tillage, I could have wished it happened under more clement circumstances and with less distress to yourself, but it was a brave deed coming after us and fleeing that man.” He considered Peter with an interested expression, as if the young man might have known something about her flight beforehand.
    The parson went to a large leather sack that hung behind one of Mars’s saddlebags, and from this he eventually wrestled his blue greatcoat. Nora seemed hardly big enough to carry it on her shoulders, and when he wrapped her in it, she all but disappeared with her small face and bedraggled russet hair peering out from between the collars; but she clasped it around herself thankfully and seemed almost to leave off her