ordher to keep an eye
upon him--and, what do you think? but he's jist afther tellin' me that
he doesn't think he'll have any further occasion for my sarvices."

"Well, a' think that looks suspicious--it's an elopement, there's no
doubt about it."

"I think so, your honor; although I am myself completely in the dark
about it, any farther than this, counsellor--listen, now--I know the
road they're goin', for I heard it by accident--they'll be off, too,
immediately. Now, if your honor is a true friend to Sir Thomas, you'll
take a post chaise and start off a little before them upon the Isaas
road. You know that by going before them, they never can suspect that
you're followin' them. I'll remain here to watch their motions, and
while you keep before them, I'll keep after them, so that it will be the
very sorra if they escape us both. Whisper, counsellor, your honor--I'm
in Sir Thomas's pay. Isn't that enough? but I want assistance, and if
you're his friend, as you say, you will be guided by me and sarve him."

Crackenfudge felt elated; he thought of the magistracy, of his privilege
to sit on the bench in all the plenitude of official authority; he
reflected that he could commit mendicants, impostors, vagrants, and
vagabonds of all descriptions, and that he would be entitled to the
solemn and reverential designation of "Your worship." Here, then, was
an opening. The very object for which he came to town was
accomplished--that is to say, the securing to himself the magistracy
through the important services rendered to Sir Thomas Gourlay.

It occurred to him, we admit, that as it must have been evidently a case
of elopement, it might be his duty to have the parties arrested, until
at least the parent of the lady could be apprised of the circumstances.
There was, however, about Crackenfudge a wholesome regard for what is
termed a whole skin, and as he had been, through the key-hole of the
Mitre inn, a witness of certain scintillations and flashes that lit up
the eye of this most mysterious stranger, he did not conceive that such
steps and his own personal safety were compatible. In the meantime, he
saw that there was an air of sincerity and anxiety about Dandy Dulcimer,
which he could impute to nothing but a wish, if possible, to make a
lasting friend of Sir Thomas, by enabling him to trace his daughter.

Dandy's plea and plan both succeeded, and in the course of a few minutes
Crackenfudge was posting at an easy rate toward