H. B. Marriott Watson

“ He might be hiding anywhere there. Again, he might have taken a short and private cut across the fields to the Castle precincts. As this dawned on me I became anxious to get home; and, abandoning all attempts to get on the trail, I hurried along the lane excitedly.
I reached the Castle to find my supper on the table, and Jackman with a suggestion of silent reproach on his face. And not until then did his newly revealed perfidy recur to me. I looked at him and wondered that so specious a man could be such a hypocrite. ”

“ Jackman, too, had offered on his own initiative to explore the orchard on the previous night, an unlikely proceeding for so mild a man, but one perfectly intelligible on the supposition that he was in league with the marauders. I became indignant as I reflected, and I watched the house across the green with jealous eyes. It was a quarter of an hour before any one appeared at the door, and then it was Jackman who let himself out and walked across the green and up the lane that climbs to the Castle. Within two minutes of his disappearance the door again opened and Eustace issued forth. ”

“ I loitered down the road till I came to the place where I had left my pony-cart. The boy was waiting patiently, but I left him there, for I had a sudden notion to look in at the inn where Eustace had drawn up. There was a bustle in the little stable yard, and as I entered a man rusted past me round the nose of a horse which was being harnessed.
"Look out, old man," called Eustace to me out of the deepening gloom. "I'm off smart." ”

“ I went up the lane, hardly aware what I was doing, and then remembered that I had a message for Hawes. I saw him, and returned, passing the "Feathers"; and, moved by an impulse, I entered the doorway of the inn.
It is a custom in English villages, a surviving relic of ancient and more intemperate times, to interrupt the morning work by a glass of ale or stout. Oddly enough, men who will do this every day of their lives would consider an afternoon glass as a sign of dissipation, even of insobriety. ”

“ But now I lost it at the "Feathers." He had alighted in the yard, where his horse was still smoking, and had left a few minutes before my arrival. Had he gone to his rooms? I dared not follow at the present development of affairs, and the window at Mrs. Lane's would no longer serve me as a watch-tower. I might, of course, hang about the green on the chance of seeing Eustace, but I did not like the idea with its "long odds " against, me. Should I wait at the inn? ”

“ She looked at me, grateful, I conjectured, that I had understood without words.
"I don't think it's credible somehow," she said.
"We must take everything as credible, till it can be disproved," I replied. ”

“ Lane's without seeking to take leave of any one and crossed to the "Feathers." By this time my guess had been justified, and Eustace, a cigar between his teeth, was seated in the dog-cart, looking the very model of a coachman. As he drove off I entered the yard and made my own request.
I will admit that my turnout was by no means so smart as his, as all I could obtain was a little Devon cart. But the pony was vigorous and willing, and rattled along the road at a very fair speed. ”