added,
struck with a sudden idea: "I'll wait here, and go on by the night
coach. I don't mind the cold, and I should get home to Castlefield in
time for breakfast to-morrow morning."

"It's not certain you'd find room," muttered Peter, "unless you booked
a place beforehand. There's a good many travelling now, just before
Christmas."

"Oh, they'd stow him away somewhere, a little chap like him," remarked
Mrs. Judson.

Just then a man's head appeared at the door of the bar-parlour in which
we were talking, and I recognized Bob, the head stableman, who had been
passing down the passage and had overheard our conversation.

"There's the _True Blue_ put on extra to-day for the jail delivery," he
remarked. "The young gen'leman might get through to Castlefield all
right on that. I don't suppose he'd have any particular objection to
going along of the 'birds,' seeing they're well looked after!"

The exact meaning of this speech I did not comprehend, but I gathered
from it that there was a chance of my going on by an extra coach, which
would pass before the mail, and I at once jumped at the opportunity.

"Oh yes; I'll go on by that," I exclaimed. "What time is it due?"

"About half-past four," answered the man.

Judson and his wife looked at each other and then at me.

"I don't see why he shouldn't go," remarked the latter. "George'll
look after him all right. Besides, his friends will be expecting him
to-day, and'll be sure to be sitting up. He ought to be home just
afore or after midnight."

It was, accordingly, settled that I was to go on by the _True Blue_,
which was due to pass at half-past four. The man appeared shortly
after with my box. I gave him his mug of beer, and then settled down
to while away the time as best I could till the coach should arrive. I
looked over some back numbers of the _Welmington Advertiser_, went
outside and chatted with the stablemen, and joined the landlord and his
wife at their midday dinner. Slowly the afternoon wore away. Mrs.
Judson had forced me to eat a hearty tea--"to keep out the cold," as
the good soul put it--and I was standing warming myself by the taproom
fire talking to Judson, when, happening to turn my head, I saw a man's
face pressed close against the outside of the window. By this time it
was quite dark. I could see nothing more of the stranger than his
face, but from the way in which he moved his head it seemed to me that
he was endeavouring to get a