laughs in his sleeve at their efforts to cotch him--ha,
ha! He gets over more ground in a day than they do in a week--ho, ho!"

"That's all over now," said Coates, peevishly. "He has cut his own
throat--ridden his famous mare to death."

The countryman almost choked himself, in the attempt to bolt a huge
mouthful. "Ay--indeed, measter! How happened that?" asked he, so soon as
he recovered speech.

"The fool rode her from London to York last night," returned Coates;
"such a feat was never performed before. What horse could be expected to
live through such work as that?"

"Ah, he were a foo' to attempt that," observed the countryman; "but you
followed belike?"

"We did."

"And took him arter all, I reckon?" asked the rustic, squinting more
horribly than ever.

"No," returned Coates, "I can't say we did; but we'll have him yet. I'm
pretty sure he can't be far off. We may be nearer him than we imagine."

"May be so, measter," returned the countryman; "but might I be so bold
as to ax how many horses you used i' the chase--some half-dozen, maybe?"

"Half a dozen!" growled Paterson; "we had twenty at the least."

"And I ONE!" mentally ejaculated Turpin, for he was the countryman.

_BOOK V_

_THE OATH_

It was an ill oath better broke than kept--
The laws of nature, and of nations, do
Dispense with matters of divinity
In such a case.

TATEHAM.

_CHAPTER I_

_THE HUT ON THORNE WASTE_

_Hind._ Are all our horses and our arms in safety?

_Furbo._ They feed, like Pluto's palfreys, under ground.
Our pistols, swords, and other furniture,
Are safely locked up at our rendezvous.

_Prince of Prigs' Revels._

The hut on Thorne Waste, to which we have before incidentally alluded,
and whither we are now about to repair, was a low, lone hovel, situate
on the banks of the deep and oozy Don, at the eastern extremity of that
extensive moor. Ostensibly its owner fulfilled the duties of ferryman to
that part of the river; but as the road which skirted his tenement was
little frequented, his craft was, for the most part, allowed to sleep
undisturbed in her moorings.

In reality, however, he was the inland agent of a horde of smugglers who
infested the neighboring coast; his cabin was their rendezvous; and not
unfrequently, it was said, the depositor