What I was to do when the coach stopped was a more difficult point to settle.

To give the runner the slip, with two women to take care of, was simply impossible.

To treat him, as I had treated Screw at the red-brick house, was equally out of the question, for he was certain to give me no chance of catching him alone.

To keep him in ignorance of the real object of my journey, and thereby to delay his discovering himself and attempting to make me a prisoner, seemed the only plan on the safety of which I could place the smallest reliance.

If I had ever had any idea of following the example of other runaway lovers, and going to Gretna Green, I should now have abandoned it.