"They can set up their targets without me.

I shall be half dead by the time I get there." Nevertheless, in the indecision, he still walked on.

He thought he'd see how affairs looked when he came to the green fields.

Green! brown, rather.
But Lionel found other affairs to look at before he reached the fields.
On turning a sharp angle of Clay Lane, he was surprised to see a crowd collected, stretching from one side of it to the other.

Not a peaceable crowd evidently, although it was composed for the most part of the gentler sex; but a crowd of threatening arms and inflamed faces, and swaying white caps and noisy tongues.