or it. Bad taste, wasn't it?
At any rate, I mustn't call on him again too soon."

"You haven't settled on the night yet, I suppose, captain?"

"About the end of next week. Friday will be a full moon, I think,
and I like a moon for the work. It gives light enough to see what
you are doing, and not light enough for them to see much of you. So
I suppose I may as well fix Friday. I will send up a message for
Jack Mercer and Jerry Skinlow to be here on Thursday evening. I
will be here that afternoon, and settle matters with them as to
where they shall meet me, and what each man shall do. Then I will
ride back to town, and come out again just as it gets dark, with
Jack Ponsford."

"I suppose you will do it north of here?"

"No, I will do it a mile or two out of town. The road north of this
is getting rather a bad reputation, and in going out of Barnet the
guard now looks to his blunderbuss, and the passengers get their
pistols ready. It isn't once in a hundred times they have pluck
enough to use them, but they always think they will, until the time
comes. Near town we shall take them by surprise, and stop them
before they have time to think of getting out their arms.

"Confound that window. Shove something into the hole, Johnson. I
can feel the cold right down my back."

A cloth was pushed into the broken pane, and Charlie could hear no
more of what was said inside. He had heard, indeed, enough for his
purpose, but he had hoped to gather the name of the place at which
the man would put up in London. However, he was well satisfied with
his success, and at once made his way back to the inn.

"Well, Charlie, how have you succeeded?" Harry asked, as he sat
down at the table.

"Could not be better, Harry, though I did not find out where he
puts up in London. However, that is of small consequence. In the
first place, I found out that our suspicions were right, and that
the fellow is a highwayman, and seems to be captain of a gang
consisting anyhow of three, and perhaps of more, fellows like
himself. In the second place, he intends, with his three comrades,
to attack the coach on Friday week, two or three miles out of town.
Nothing could better suit our purpose, even if we had planned the
affair ourselves. Of course, we will be there. If we can capture
him while engaged in that work, we can get anything out of him. He
has either got to confess or be hanged."

"That is a stroke of good luck, indeed," Harry exclaimed. "It