again in this inquiry, but now
at last it came to my aid. And the messenger of good fortune was
none other than Mr. Frankland, who was standing, gray-whiskered
and red-faced, outside the gate of his garden, which opened on to
the high road along which I travelled.

"Good-day, Dr. Watson," cried he with unwonted good humour, "you
must really give your horses a rest, and come in to have a glass
of wine and to congratulate me."

My feelings towards him were very far from being friendly after
what I had heard of his treatment of his daughter, but I was
anxious to send Perkins and the wagonette home, and the
opportunity was a good one. I alighted and sent a message to Sir
Henry that I should walk over in time for dinner. Then I followed
Frankland into his dining-room.

"It is a great day for me, sir--one of the red-letter days of my
life," he cried with many chuckles. "I have brought off a double
event. I mean to teach them in these parts that law is law, and
that there is a man here who does not fear to invoke it. I have
established a right of way through the centre of old Middleton's
park, slap across it, sir, within a hundred yards of his own
front door. What do you think of that? We'll teach these magnates
that they cannot ride roughshod over the rights of the
commoners, confound them! And I've closed the wood where the
Fernworthy folk used to picnic. These infernal people seem to
think that there are no rights of property, and that they can
swarm where they like with their papers and their bottles. Both
cases decided, Dr. Watson, and both in my favour. I haven't had
such a day since I had Sir John Morland for trespass, because he
shot in his own warren."

"How on earth did you do that?"

"Look it up in the books, sir. It will repay reading--Frankland
v. Morland, Court of Queen's Bench. It cost me 200 pounds, but I
got my verdict."

"Did it do you any good?"

"None, sir, none. I am proud to say that I had no interest in the
matter. I act entirely from a sense of public duty. I have no
doubt, for example, that the Fernworthy people will burn me in
effigy to-night. I told the police last time they did it that
they should stop these disgraceful exhibitions. The County
Constabulary is in a scandalous state, sir, and it has not
afforded me the protection to which I am entitled. The case of
Frankland v. Regina will bring the matter before the attention of
the public. I told them that they would have occasion to re