An the day were not come"-- But just then the bell, quickening its pace, began to ring thick and hurried, and then it gave a single hammering jangle, and was silent for a space.
"It is as though the bearer had run for a pater-noster while, and then leaped the river," Dick observed.
"And now beginneth he again to pace soberly forward," added Matcham.
"Nay," returned Dick--"nay, not so soberly, Jack.

'Tis a man that walketh you right speedily.

'Tis a man in some fear of his life, or about some hurried business.

See ye not how swift the beating draweth near ?" "It is now close by," said Matcham.
They were now on the edge of the pit; and as the pit itself was on a certain eminence, they commanded a view over the greater proportion of the clearing, up to the thick woods that closed it in.
The daylight, which was very clear and grey, showed them a riband of white footpath wandering among the gorse.

It passed some hundred yards from the pit, and ran the whole length of the clearing, east and west.
By the line of its course, Dick judged it should lead more or less directly to the Moat House.
Upon this path, stepping forth from the margin of the wood, a white figure now appeared.