a measure of the garden wall--or perhaps a movement caught my eye--
I saw a man step across the path between the brambles, out of the
garden, as you might say, and into the plantation opposite. The path
being so narrow, I glimpsed him for half a second only. But the
glimpse of him gave me a start, for, if to suppose it had been
anywise possible, I could have sworn the man was one I had known in
Falmouth and left behind there."

"Captain Coffin!" I exclaimed.

"Ay, lad, Captain Coffin--Captain Danny Coffin. But what should he
be doing at Minden Cottage?"

"The quicker you proceed, sir," said Miss Belcher, rapping the table,
"the sooner we are likely to discover."

[1] Russell's waggons--"Russell and Co., Falmouth to London"--were
huge vehicles that plied along the Great West Road under an escort of
soldiers, and conveyed the bullion and other treasure landed at
Falmouth by the Post Office packets. They were drawn, always at a
foot-pace, by teams of six stout horses. The waggoner rode beside on
a pony, and inside sat a man armed with pistols and blunderbuss.
Poor travellers used these waggons, walking by day, and sleeping by
night beneath the tilt.

CHAPTER XVI.

CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION--THE FLAG AND THE CASHBOX.

"Well, ma'am," resumed Captain Branscome, "so strong was the likeness
to old Coffin, and yet so incredible was it he should be in these
parts, that, almost without stopping to consider, I turned down the
lane on the chance of another glimpse of the man. This brought me,
of course, to the stile leading into the plantation; but the path
there, as you know, takes a turn among the trees almost as soon as it
starts, and runs, moreover, through a pretty thick undergrowth.
The fellow, whoever he was, had disappeared.

"I can't say but what I was still puzzled, though the likeliest
explanation--indeed, the only likely one--seemed to be that my eyes
had played me a trick. I had pretty well made up my mind to this when
I turned away from the stile to have a look at the garden gate on the
other side of the lane; and over it, across the little stretch of
turf, I caught sight of the summer-house and of Major Brooks standing
there in the doorway with a bundle between his hands-a bundle of
something red, which he seemed to be wrapping round with a piece of
cord.

"Here, then, was the very man I had come to see; and here was a
chance of getting speech with him and without the awkwardness of