n into account.

But when nine o'clock had come and gone, and still the coach stood in
the yard of the inn, Robbie's sense of duty overcame his appetite for
what he would have called a "spoag." It was usual for the Carlisle
coach to await the coach from Lancaster, and it was because the latter
had not yet arrived at Kendal that the former was unable to depart
from it. Robbie's impatience waxed considerably during the half-hour
thence ensuing; but when ten o'clock had struck, and still no definite
movement was made, his indignation became boisterous.

There were to be four inside passengers, all women; and cold as the
night might prove, Robbie's seat must be outside. The protestations of
all five passengers were at length too loud, and their importunity was
too earnest, to admit of longer delay. So the driver put in his horses
and took his seat on the box.

This had scarcely been done when the horn of the Lancaster coach was
heard in the distance, and some further waiting ensued.

"Let's hope you'll have no traffic out of, it when it does come," said
Robbie with a dash of spite. A few minutes afterwards the late coach
drove into the yard and discharged its travellers.

Two of these, who were going forward to Carlisle, climbed the ladder
and took seats behind Robbie. It was too dark to see who or what they
were except that they were men, that they were wrapped in long cloaks,
and wore caps that fitted close to their heads and cheeks, being tied
over their beards and beneath their chins.

The much-maligned Jim now gave a smart whip to his horses, and in a
moment more the coach was on the road.

The night was dark and bitterly cold, and once outside the town the
glimmer of the lamps which the coach carried was all the light the
passengers had for miles.

A slight headache from which Robbie had suffered at intervals since
the ducking of his head in the river at Wythburn had now quite
disappeared, but a curious numbness, added to a degree of
stupefaction, began to take its place. As the coach jogged along on
its weary journey, not even the bracing surroundings of Robbie's
present elevated and exposed position had the effect of keeping him
actively awake. He dozed in short snatches and awoke with slight
shudders, feeling alternately hot and cold.

In one of his intervals of wakefulness he heard fragments of a
conversation which was being sustained by the strangers behind him.
Robbie had neither activity nor curiosit