Well knowing that in these villages he ran much more risk of detection than in the open country, he henceforth did his best to avoid them, by taking a roundabout course whenever they came in sight from a distance.

This mode of travelling not only lengthened his journey, but put unlooked-for obstacles in his path--walls, ditches, and streams.
Not half an hour after throwing away his crutch, he leaped a great ditch ten feet wide, and of undiscoverable muddy depth.

I wonder if the old cripple would think me the lamer one now, thought Israel to himself, arriving on the hither side..