Notwithstanding the liberal potations that they had taken at the Alderman's house; and notwithstanding the brandy that had since been discussed, they neither of them felt any the worse for the imbibition3. Probably, the active exercise they took carried off all bad effects. But, certainly, when they reached Highgate, both Todd and Lupin were hungry.
"Don't you think a more obscure place," suggested Todd, "would be better for us, as we do not by any means court popularity?"
"No; there is more safety in a large place like the Gate House, where plenty of guests are coming and going continually, than in a little bit of a public-house where we should be looked at, and scrutinised from top to toe, from the moment we went in to the moment we came out."
"Very good," said Todd. "I think you reason well enough upon the point, and I give in to your better judgment5 completely. Ah! my good friend, I really don't know what I should have done at all without you."
"Been hanged!" said Lupin.
Todd gave a shudder6, which was a tolerably convincing proof of how fully7 he agreed in what Mr. Lupin said; and then they went into the Old Gate-House Tavern, at Highgate, where they had a very plentiful8 breakfast; and by getting into a corner of the room, in which they sat, they did not attract any observation beyond the mere9 casual regards of the visitors to the house.
Before they left though, Todd had the horror of hearing a great confusion of voices in the passage, and in a few moments one of the waiters came into the room, quite bursting with his news.
"Gentlemen," he said, "the notorious Todd, and a man named Lupin, who was a murderer likewise, have escaped from Newgate!"
"Escaped?" said Lupin. "You don't say so?"
"Dear me, when?" said Todd.
"Last night, gentlemen, last night; and—coming—coming!"
The waiter was compelled to leave the room, as a bell rung violently.
"Let us go," said Todd.
"Yes, I think, now that the news has reached here, it will be wise to do so."
"Come along, then."
Todd rose in a moment; but Lupin in a whisper strictly10 cautioned him not to show any symptoms of hurry or alarm; and he was so far master of himself to see the necessity of such a caution, so that they both got safely out of the Gate-House Tavern, and took the route to Hampstead by Swains Lane, without having anything said to them.
"This is an escape indeed," said Todd.
"Yes," said Lupin, "you may depend that in a very little time there will be some officers at the Gate-House; but if we can get to the wood within the next half hour, I think we are safe enough. What do you think?"
"I think that if our safety depends upon getting into Caen Wood in half-an-hour, we ought to be there in half the time."
"Do you? Then come on for a run."
"Oh, dear," said Todd. "I am all aches and pains, and not at all fit for running; but I suppose I must. Don't go very fast, Mr. Lupin, or I shall never be able to keep up with you."
"Then you go first and run as fast as you can without greatly distressing11 yourself, and I will adopt my speed to yours."
"That will be better," said Todd.
Off they both set down Swains Lane, and as the first part of that well-known thoroughfare from Highgate to Hampstead goes down hill, they got on speedily with very little exertion12; but when the foot of the little slope was reached it was quite another thing, and Todd was fast subsiding13 into a walk, when Lupin cried to him—
"We are pursued!"
At these words, Todd fell flat in the roadway.
"Up—up!" said Lupin, "there is a turn in the lane just ahead of us, and when we reach that we must get over the hedge and hide. I don't know that they are actually after us, but there are horsemen in the lane coming from Highgate."
Todd got up as far as his hands and knees, and then, as his ears were close to the ground, he said—
"We are lost, for I can hear horsemen coming from the other direction too."
"The deuce you can!"
Mr. Lupin stooped to listen, and in a moment he was assured of the fact. He seized Mr. Todd by the collar, saying—
"Now, Todd, if you want to escape, rouse yourself and follow me; but if you don't care about it, say so at once, and I will look after my own safety."
"Care about it?" cried Todd, "what else do you suppose I care about in all the world?"
"Come on, then."
"Here I am. Oh, yes I'm coming on—as quick as you like now, Lupin. The dread14 of capture banishes15 all fatigue16. I can now run like a hunted hare."
"There is no occasion," said Lupin. "This way. We must hide now; speed would do us but little good against horsemen.—This way."
Lupin ran on until he got to the turn of the lane, which hid the horsemen from Highgate effectually from their view; and as the mounted party coming from the direction of Hampstead had not got so far as to appear, he thought it was just the place to halt at.
"Now, Todd," he said, "we must get over the hedge here, and our only chance of safety, if these men are really on the look-out for us, is to hide in the meadow."
Without waiting for Todd to make any remark upon the very doubtful means of escape presented, Lupin scrambled18 through the hedge. Todd then followed him, and the first care of Lupin's was to arrange the twigs19 that had been displaced in the hedge by their passage through it, so that there should not appear to be any gap at all there.
Immediately upon the other side of the hedge which they had thus crossed there was a ditch, and a large heap of manure20. Mr. Lupin, without the slightest ceremony, laid himself down, and pulling a lot of the manure heap over him, he nearly covered himself quite up.
"This is very shocking," said Todd.
"It's quite a luxury compared to a cell in Newgate," replied Lupin. "You had better be quick."
The word Newgate acted upon the imagination of Todd as a very powerful spell, and he at once lay down and began to follow the example of his friend, Lupin; and indeed so very anxious was he while he was about it to hide himself completely, that he nearly smothered21 himself outright22 in the manure.
"I hope this will do," he moaned.
"Silence!" said Lupin.
Todd was as still as death in a moment.
As they now lay close to the earth, all sounds upon it were much more clearly brought to their senses than when they were walking, so that there was no sort of difficulty in distinguishing the tread of the horses that were coming from Highgate from those that proceeded from the other direction, and which latter ones were not quite so near as the others.
Faintly, too, they could hear the hum of commotion23, which showed that the party consisted of three or four persons.
And now the mounted men from Highgate got right down into the hollow, close to the bend in the lane, and they paused, while one said, in a clear voice—
"We ought not to go any further. Those from Hampstead should meet us now, I think."
"They are coming," said another.
"Ah! so they are. I wonder if they have seen anything of the rascals24. I do hope they will soon be nabbed, for this patrolling business is very tiresome25."
These words were quite sufficient, if any doubt had been upon the minds of Lupin and Todd, to convince them that the mounted men were after them, and of the great peril26 they would have been in if they had staid in the lane.
To be sure there was nothing in what had been said to add to the supposition that the horsemen had any knowledge of the fact that the persons they sought were in that neighbourhood, and that might be considered to decrease the danger a little; but yet it was sufficiently27 great, under all circumstances.
In the course of the next two minutes the Hampstead party came up and joined the others.
"Any luck?" said one.
"No, we came right on across the heath, but we neither saw nor heard anything of them, and it is quite impossible to say, as yet, that they have come in this direction at all. I don't myself think it at all likely."
"Why not?"
"Because of all neighbourhoods close to London, it is the most high and exposed, while at the same time it is not thickly peopled."
"Well, there may be something in that. We have heard nothing of them in Highgate up to now, so I suppose we may go back again the way we came, and you will do the same."
"Have you been in any of the meadows?"
"No. But it's easy to get over the gate yonder, and take a look all round. The enclosures are not very numerous about here, and they would find it difficult to hide. Hold my horse, George, and I'll get into the meadows and take a look."
The man who had last spoken got over a gate that was at some little distance off, and stood upon an elevated spot of the meadows to look about him.
"There's nothing moving," he said.
"Come along, then," cried another. "Let's get on."
"Here's a compost heap; they are perhaps in the middle of that. Is it worth looking at?"
"Not exactly. Come on."
The man retired29 to the road again and mounted, and in the course of a few moments the two parties rode back again upon the way that they had come.
"Todd?" said Lupin, "Todd?"
"Todd, I say, get up. Are you out of your mind? The danger is past now. They are gone."
"Gone!" said Todd, looking up. "You don't say so? Didn't I hear one of them say that he would look in this very place?"
"Yes; but that was only a joke."
"A joke?" said Todd with a deep groan. "A joke was it? Oh, how very careful people should be when they make jokes, when other people are hiding from their enemies. It might be very funny to him, but it was quite the reverse to me."
"That's true enough; but get up now, and in the name of everything that's safe and comfortable, let us get to the wood. These fellows are evidently patrolling the road, and they will be back again in a little while, and still come across us if we don't manage to get out of their way before that time.—Come along. We can get to the wood now quickly."
"Ah, dear me!" said Todd, as he shook himself to get rid of as much of the unsavoury mess he had lain in as possible. "Ah dear me! truly I have now hit upon evil times; and fortune, that I thought petted me, has slipped from me like a shadow, leaving me glad of a manure heap in a field as a place of shelter."
"All that is very true," said Lupin, "but it don't get us on a bit."
"I'm ready—I'm quite ready," groaned Todd.
They were upon the point of going into the lane again, but they were compelled—or rather thought it prudent31—to wait until a man had passed, who, by the box that he carried on his back, was evidently a hawker of goods about the country. He soon trudged32 out of their way, and then they both got through the hedge again into the lane.
The place of their destination was now close at hand, upon their left; and watching a favourable33 spot by which to do so, they crossed the hedge upon that side and got into the fields; but although a sharp run across two or three meadows would have taken them at once to Caen Wood, they did not think it at all prudent so to expose themselves to observation.
"Skirt the hedge, Todd," said Lupin, "and stoop down so as to keep your head as much below the top of the hedgerow as possible. You are inconveniently34 tall, just now."
Upon this instruction, Todd bent35 himself almost double, and in that attitude he managed to scramble17 close to the hedge, and up to his knees, at times, in the ditches and drains that he came across in such a situation.
In this way, then, they got on until they reached the outskirts36 of Caen Wood. Not a creature was to be seen, and the most profound and solemn stillness, reigned37 around them. Todd was not used to that intense quiet of the country and he shook at it rather, but Lupin took no notice of his emotion.
"Here we are, at last," he said, "and all you have to do, Todd, is to point out the spot where you have hidden your money, and then we will divide it, and wait until nightfall before we venture out of this snug38 place."
"Come along," said Todd; "it's all right."
And then they both dived amongst the trees, which, in some places, quite shut out the daylight.
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收听单词发音
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1
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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2
beguiled
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| v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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3
imbibition
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| n.吸入，吸取；吸液 | |
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4
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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5
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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6
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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7
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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8
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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9
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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10
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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11
distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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12
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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13
subsiding
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的现在分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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14
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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15
banishes
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的第三人称单数 ) | |
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16
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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17
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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18
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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19
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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20
manure
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| n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥 | |
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21
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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22
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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23
commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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24
rascals
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| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
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25
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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26
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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27
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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28
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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29
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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30
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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31
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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32
trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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33
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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34
inconveniently
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| ad.不方便地 | |
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35
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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36
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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37
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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38
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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