Yes; but I shorten the distance to be covered, and, moreover, this is a long-distance man, and he is wearing me down." Though this process of reasoning appeared to him deliberate enough, in point of fact he had worked it out and put the conclusion into practice in a couple of bounds.

As he darted aside and along the footpath he could hear the momentary break in his antagonist's stride.
Tristram had hardly turned into this footpath, however, before he saw the occasion of it.

Just before him lay a plank, and beneath the plank a sunken dyke, dividing the meadow so unexpectedly that at fifty yards' distance the green lips seemed to meet in one continuous stretch of turf.

And yet the dyke was full forty feet wide.
He leapt on to the swaying bridge and across to the farther edge, almost without a glance at the sluggish black water under his feet.
It is probable that his sudden weight jolted the plank out of its position.

For hardly was he safe on the turf again when he heard a sharp cry.