"I shall have to settle with this fellow," he thought. "He is going
to catch me up before I reach the bank."
His first wind was failing him, and his heart began to thump against
his ribs. He spied a beaten path at this point that trended across
the meadow at a blunter angle than the one he was following.
Almost unconsciously he began to reason as follows:
"A beaten path is usually the shortest cut: also, to follow it is
usually to escape the risk of meeting unforeseen obstacles. But if I
change the angle at which I am running for one more obtuse, I give my
pursuer the advantage of ten yards or so. Yes; but I shorten the
distance to be covered, and, moreover, this is a long-distance man,
and he is wearing me down."
Though this process of reasoning appeared to him deliberate enough,
in point of fact he had worked it out and put the conclusion into
practice in a couple of bounds. As he darted aside and along the
footpath he could hear the momentary break in his antagonist's
stride.
Tristram had hardly turned into this footpath, however, before he saw
the occasion of it. Just before him lay a plank, and beneath the
plank a sunken dyke, dividing the meadow so unexpectedly that at
fifty yards' distance the green lips seemed to meet in one continuous
stretch of turf.
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