Chapter 60

that handkerchief, and there's the mark of wheels and 'osses' feet.”

“Well, if it is certain they have gone that way,” continued I, “let us lose no time in following them. How far off is this mill?”

“About a couple of miles out of the road, sir,” replied one of the postboys.

“Get on then,” said I; “but mind you do not lose the track of their wheels. It's plain enough on the gravel of the lane.”

“All right, sir,” was the reply; and we again dashed forward.

As we got farther from the high road, the ruts became so deep that we were obliged to proceed at a more moderate pace. After skirting a thick wood for some distance, we came suddenly upon a small bleak desolate-looking common, near the centre of which stood the mill, which appeared in a somewhat dilapidated condition. A little half-ruinous cottage, probably the habitation of the miller, lay to the right of the larger building; but no signs of ~~451~ Carriage or horses were to be perceived, nor, indeed, anything which might indicate that the place was inhabited.

As we drew up at the gate of a farmyard, which formed the approach both to the mill and the house, Peter Barnett again got down, and having carefully examined the traces of the wheel-marks, observed, “they've been here, that I'll take my Bible oath on. The wheel-tracks go straight into the yard. But there's some fresh marks here I can't rightly make out. It looks as if a horse had galloped up to the gate and leaped hover it.”

“Wilford!” exclaimed I, as a sudden idea came into my head. “We have not got to the truth of this matter yet, depend upon it. There is some collusion between Wilford and Cumberland.”

“Umph! rascals!” ejaculated Mr. Frampton. “But 'they shall both hang for it, if it costs me every farthing I possess in the world.”

“It's Mr Fleming's black mare as has been hover 'ere,” said one of the postboys, who, I afterwards learned, was a stable-helper at Barstone, and had volunteered to drive in the sudden emergency. “I knows her marks from any hother 'orse's. She's got a bar-shoe on the near fore-foot.”

“Is there nobody here to direct us?” asked I. “Let me out. Who is this miller, Peter?” I continued, as I sprang to the ground.

“Well, he's a queer one,” was the reply. “Nobody rightly knows what to make of him. He's no great good, I expects; but good or bad, we'll have him out.”

So saying, he opened the gate, and going to the cottage-door, which was closed and fastened, commenced a vigorous assault upon it. For some time his exertions appeared productive of no result, and I began to imagine the cottage was untenanted.

“We are only wasting our time to no purpose,” said I. “Let us endeavour to trace the wheel-marks, and continue our pursuit.”

“I'm certain sure there's some one in the house,” rejoined old Peter, after applying his ear to the keyhole; “I can hear 'em moving about.”

“We'll soon see,” replied I, looking round for some implement fitted for my purpose. In one corner lay a heap of wood, apparently part of an old paling. Selecting a stout post which had formed one of the uprights, I dashed it against the fastenings of the door with a degree of force which made lock and hinges rattle again. I was about to repeat the attack, when a gruff voice from within the house shouted, “Hold hard there, I'm a-coming,” and ~452~~ in another minute the bolts were withdrawn, and the door opened.

“What do you mean by destroying a man's property in this manner?” was the salutation with which we were accosted.

The speaker was a short thick-set man, with brawny arms, and a head unnaturally large, embellished by a profusion of red hair, and a beard of at least a week's growth. The expression of his face, surly in the extreme, would have been decidedly bad, had it not been for a look of kindness in the eye, which in some degree redeemed it!

“What do you mean by allowing people to stand knocking at your door for five minutes, my friend, without taking any notice of them? You obliged us to use summary measures,” replied I.

“Well, I wor a-laying on the bed when you cum. I slipped down with a sack of flour this morning, and hit my head, so I thought I'd turn in and take a snooze, do you see;” and as he spoke he pointed to his face, one side of which I now perceived was black and swollen, as if from a blow.

“That's a lie, Joe! and you knows it,” said Peter Barnett abruptly.

“You speaks pretty plainly at all events, Master Barnett,” was the reply, but in a less surly tone than he had hitherto used.

The man was clearly an original; and it was equally evident that Peter knew how to deal with him, and that I did not. I therefore called the former on one side, and desired him, if bribing was of any use, to offer the miller fifty pounds, if through his information we were enabled to overtake the fugitives. Upon this a conversation ensued between the pair, which appeared as if it would never come to a termination; but just as my patience was exhausted, and I was about to break in upon them, Peter informed me that if I would engage to pay Hard-man fifty pounds, and to protect him from Wilford's anger, he would tell me everything he knew, and put me on the right track. To this I agreed, and he proceeded to give me the following account:--

In the course of the previous day, a vagabond of his acquaintance, who called himself a rat-catcher, but was a professional poacher and an amateur pugilist, came to him, and told him that a gentleman who had a little job in hand wanted the use of the cottage, as it was a nice out-of-the-way place, and that, if he would agree, the gent would call and give him his instructions. He inquired ~453~~ of what the job consisted; and on being told that a girl was going to run away from home with her sweetheart--that being, as he observed, merely an event in the course of nature--he agreed. In the evening he was visited by Wilford, and a man who was addressed as Captain. They directed him to have a room in the cottage ready by the next morning for the reception of a lady; and at the same time a sealed paper was handed to him, which he was directed to lock up in some safe place, and in the event of the lady and her maid-servant being given into his custody unharmed, he was to deliver up the paper to a gentleman who should produce a signet ring then shown him. This being successfully accomplished, he and his friend the poacher were alike to prevent the lady's escape, and protect her against all intrusion, till such time as Wilford should arrive to claim her; for which services the worthy pair were to receive conjointly the sum of twenty pounds.

In pursuance of these instructions, he had locked up the paper, and prepared for locking up the lady. About half an hour before we made our appearance, a carriage had arrived with four smoking posters; it contained two females inside; the Captain and a gentleman (whom the miller recognised as Mr. Cumberland of Barstone Priory) were seated in the rumble, while his friend the poacher was located on a portmanteau in front.

Cumberland and his companion alighted, and the former immediately asked for the paper, producing the ring, and saying that the plan had been changed, and that the lady was to go on another stage. Joe Hardman, however, was not, as he expressed it, “to be done so easy,” and positively refused to give up the paper till the lady was consigned to his custody. A whispered consultation took place between Cumberland and the Captain, the carriage door was opened, and the lady and her maid requested to alight. Joe then ushered them into the room prepared for them, the windows of which had been effectually secured, locked them in, and leaving the poacher on guard, hastened to get the paper, which, on receiving the ring, he delivered up to Cumberland. No sooner, however, had Cumberland secured the document than he made a signal to the Captain; they both threw themselves upon Hardman, and endeavoured to overpower him. He resisted vigorously, shouting loudly to the poacher for assistance, an appeal to which that treacherous ally responded by bestowing upon him a blow which stretched him on his back, and damaged his ~454~~ physiognomy in the manner already described. Having put him _hors de combat_, they took the key from him, released the lady, forced her and her maid to re-enter the carriage, and drove off, leaving him to explain her absence as best he might.

They had not been gone more than ten minutes when Wilford and his groom rode up at speed, and on learning the trick which had been played upon him swore a fearful oath to be avenged on Cumberland, and after ascertaining which direction they had taken, followed eagerly in pursuit.

He added, that his chief inducement for making this confession, was his conviction that something dreadful would occur unless timely measures were taken to prevent it. He declared Cumberland's manner to have been that of a man driven to desperation; and he had noticed that he had pistols with him. Wilford's ungovernable fury, on being informed how he had been deceived, was described by Hardman as enough to make a man's blood run cold to witness. Having, in addition, ascertained the route they had taken, and the means by which we should be likely to trace them, we returned to the carriage,--my heart heavy with the most dire forebodings,--and inciting the drivers, by promises of liberal payment, to use their utmost speed, we once again started in pursuit.