Digital heart book

Presently, coming to the top of a knoll, they were aware of the
leper, some hundred feet in front of them, crossing the line of
their march by a hollow. His bell was silent, his staff no longer
tapped the ground, and he went before him with the swift and
assured footsteps of a man who sees. Next moment he had
disappeared into a little thicket.
The lads, at the first glimpse, had crouched behind a tuft of
gorse; there they lay, horror-struck.
"Certain, he pursueth us," said Dick--"certain! He held the
clapper of his bell in one hand, saw ye? that it should not sound.
Now may the saints aid and guide us, for I have no strength to
combat pestilence!"
"What maketh he?" cried Matcham. "What doth he want? Who ever
heard the like, that a leper, out of mere malice, should pursue
unfortunates? Hath he not his bell to that very end, that people
may avoid him? Dick, there is below this something deeper."
"Nay, I care not," moaned Dick; "the strength is gone out of me; my
legs are like water.


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