ger, and that is the one we'll
take, unless you want to turn back and forfeit your stake."

To the St. Albans road they started, Crofts, Berkeley, and Wentworth
walking perhaps two hundred yards in advance of Churchill and Hamilton.
The rain was pouring down in torrents, and the night was so dark that
Hamilton and Churchill could not see the advance guard, though they heard
a deal of talking, laughing, and cursing ahead of them. This order of
march was what Crofts and his friends desired, for of course the wager
was not on their minds. They were hoping for something greater, and
would have been glad to release Churchill and Hamilton had they offered
to turn back. But lacking that good fortune, the valiant three evidently
hoped to meet the coach and rob it before the others came up, in which
case Crofts and his friends would deny the robbery, if accused, and would
divide the gold into three parts instead of five.

When nearly two miles from the city, Crofts, Berkeley, and Wentworth met
Roger's coach and delivered the attack as silently as possible. Just the
manner in which it was done I have never learned, since Hamilton himself
did not know the particulars of it, and Frances told me it happened so
quickly that it was over almost before she knew it had begun. She said
the horses had stopped, which was not a matter of surprise to her, as
they had been resting every few minutes, and that a man wearing a mask
entered the coach, rummaged the cushions, and was backing out with the
bag of gold in his hand when Roger seized him.

The robber was almost out of the coach, but Roger clung to him with one
hand while he drew his pistol with the other and fired. Then the man
tossed the bag of gold to one of his friends on the road, drew his sword,
thrust it in Roger's breast, and the poor old man fell back on the coach
floor at my cousin's feet. She heard some one call to Noah: "Drive on if
you value a whole skin!" and Noah, awaiting no second command, lashed the
horses with his whip until they plunged forward at a clumsy gallop.

Hamilton and Churchill, being perhaps two hundred yards down the road,
knew nothing of the trouble ahead till they heard the pistol shot, when
they ran forward, supposing their drunken friends were fighting among
themselves. They had not taken many steps when a coach passed them,
moving rapidly. As it passed, George heard a woman scream faintly, but
immediately the coach dashed out of sight. The light from