He could follow down the creek to Clifty, and thence he might escape.

But, traveling down to Clifty, he debated whether it was best to escape.

To flee was to confess his guilt, to make himself an outlaw, to put an insurmountable barrier between himself and Hannah, whose terror-stricken and anxious face as she stood by the brook-willows haunted him now, and was an involuntary witness to her love.
Long before he reached Clifty his mind was made up not to flee another mile.

He knocked at the door of Squire Underwood.

But Squire Underwood was also a doctor, and had been called away.