Cattle?
To cattle they would be merciful!--thrown out into the road to lie and die and rot!" "Have they been outlawed--these men ?" said Sim.
"Damnation!" cried Ralph, as though at Sim's ignorant word a new and terrible thought had flashed upon his mind and wounded him like a dagger.
Then they rode long in silence.
Away they went, mile after mile, without rest and without pause, through dales and over uplands, past meres and across rivers, and still with the gathering blackness overhead.
What force of doom was spurring them on in this race against Life?
It was the depth of a Cumbrian winter, and the days were short.

Clearly they would never reach Penrith to-night.

The delay at Hollowbank and the shortened twilight before a coming snowstorm must curtail their journey.

They agreed to put up for the night at the inn at Askham.
As they approached that house of entertainment they observed that the coach which had left Carlisle that morning was in the act of drawing up at the door.

It waited only while three or four passengers alighted, and then drove on and passed them in its journey south.
Five hours hence it would pass the northward coach from Kendal.
When Ralph and Sim dismounted at the Fox and Hounds, at Askham, the landlord came hastily to the door.