He
agreed, therefore, to remain within doors all that day; and he was
not sorry he had done so when presently he observed two of his
enemies slowly prowling past the house, scanning the windows
furtively, and talking together in very earnest tones.
Could it be possible that these men had been of the company
travelling with the troopers that night? Could they have got wind
in some mysterious way of what was afoot, and have followed to seek
his ruin? Tom had reason to know that these men bore him a grudge,
and had threatened revenge, and that they hated Lord Claud equally
with himself. Harry Gay had warned him that they were dangerous
fellows; and Tom had not lived all this while in London without
being well aware that there were ways and means of obtaining
information, and that every man had his price. If they suspected
him to be concerned in the robbery, they would take every possible
means to hunt him down.
Tom set his teeth as this thought came to him. To be the victim of
the spite of a party of low villains, who were only fit themselves
for the hangman's halter! The thought was not to be borne. Better,
far better, the life of the forest with Captain Jack! There at
least he would be free of this persecution; and perhaps the day
would come when he should find his foes at his mercy, and take his
revenge upon them!
A very little brooding of this sort sufficed to set Tom's hot blood
boiling.
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