which he described to me
_seriatim_, as we returned, with an affectionate minuteness for which I
could have strangled him.

We started at a rattling pace on our homeward drive, hedgerow and fence
gliding by us like slides in a magic lantern. Archer's horse did not
belie the character he had given of him. With head erect, and expanded
nostril, he threw his legs forward in a long slashing trot, whirling the
light tilbury along at the rate of at least eleven miles an hour;
and fortunate it was that he did not flinch from his work, for we
had between thirteen and fourteen miles to perform in an hour and ten
minutes in order to reach the appointed spot by five o'clock. In our way
we had to pass within a quarter of a mile of Heathfield Hall; all seemed
quiet as we did so, and I heard the old clock over the stables strike a
quarter to five.

"We shall be in capital time," said I, drawing a long breath, as I felt
relieved from an anxious dread of being too late. "It was a near thing
though, and if I had not met you as I did, we should scarcely have done
it."

"Famous horse," replied Ellis; "but you've rather ~215~~over-driven him
the last two or three miles; if I were Archer, I should have a little
blood taken from him--nothing like venesection; it's safe practice in
such cases as the present. You've a remarkably clear head, Fairlegh, I
know; now I'll just explain to you the common sense of the thing: the
increased action of the heart forces the blood so rapidly through the
lungs, that proper time is not allowed for oxygenisation----"

"We shall be in sight of the place when we have advanced another hundred
yards," interrupted I, as we turned down a green lane.

"Shall we?" replied my companion, standing up in the gig, and shading
his eyes with his hand. "Yes, I see them, they're on the ground already,
and, by Jove, they are placing their men; they must have altered the
time, for it wants full ten minutes of five now."

"If they have," replied I, lashing the horse into a gallop, as I
remembered that this unhappy change would probably frustrate Coleman's
scheme, "if they have, all is lost."

My companion gazed upon me with a look of surprise, but had no time to
ask for an explanation, for at that moment we reached the gate leading
into the field, around which was collected a group, consisting of a gig
and a dog-cart (which had conveyed the respective parties, and a servant
attendant upon each, to the ground), and two or