Of course, the stream took me up a long way. I
only came up once, on my back, took a breath, and went down again, and
the second time I was right under the bank and well out of sight, though
I could hear them talking above me. It was just when I looked round,
then, that I saw them throwing stones and firing into the middle of the
river, two hundred yards lower down, and after that I had only to keep on
swimming under water, close to the bank."
"And that is how ye managed it! It was a grand thought, entirely, to swim
back to us. I never thought of that. I was most afraid you would go for
the opposite shore, and there were plenty had gathered there, ready to
seize you. I didn't think I could have missed you, if you'd kept on in
the middle, and I have been puzzled altogether as to what could have
become of you, if ye were really alive.
"I have got some bread in my bundle here, and a bottle of spirits, and
you had better have a bite and a sup before we go on, for it's pretty
nigh as white as a ghost ye are."
The meal seemed to put new life and strength into Walter, and, after its
conclusion, he was ready to step out again with fresh energy. They
thought it better at once to leave the road, and tramp across the
country.
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