The coach was moving: the postilion was in
the saddle, the other man was on the box. It passed through the
gate: the horses were lashed to a gallop, and the equipage
disappeared down the road in a cloud of dust. Flinging the shutter
wide, I craned my neck out of the broken panes and looked in the
other direction. Not half a mile away three horsemen were pressing
a gallop towards us.
"You are safe," I said, turning to the girl.
She came eagerly to my side, and in another minute the
horsemen--the innkeeper and two men whom I did not know--leapt from
their saddles when I hailed them, and came to ask if all was well.
Chapter 12: I Come To Bristowe--And Leave Unwillingly.
The presence of the innkeeper and his friends--a neighboring farmer
and one of his sons: another son had ridden to acquaint Mr.
Allardyce at the Hall of the kidnapping--relieved me of a certain
embarrassment I felt, now that the stress and excitement were over.
As yet Mistress Lucy had spoken scarce a word; but she had looked
at me with great kindness, and I knew that she was but waiting for
an opportunity to thank me for the service I had rendered her. With
the shy awkwardness of my age I wished to avoid this, and so I
willingly related to the innkeeper all that had occurred, and had
barely ended when Peabody came back in haste from Glazeley, where I
fear he had been fuddling himself as his wife had suggested. To him
the story had to be told over again, I meanwhile itching to get
away before Mr.
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