nd often paused to exchange a word
with friends upon the footpath; always telling the same story of
being on his way to St. Albans; always smiling and evading a reply
when asked to what particular house he was bound.

Nobody who saw the light and remarkable-looking carriage speeding
on its way would be likely to forget it, and Tom could not help
rather wondering at the public fashion in which they took their
journey forth.

He had one encounter which he thought little of at the time, and
certainly made no effort to evade. Lord Claud had pulled up the
carriage to exchange a few words with a knot of dandies who had
hailed him from the footway, and Tom was sitting and looking about
him at the passing throng. Presently he was aware of the fixed
stare of several pairs of eyes at an adjacent tavern window; and
looking fixedly through the rather dull glass, he made out for
certain that his friends, the four swaggering bullies, were the
owners of these eyes. A minute or two later Bully Bullen stepped
forth from the door, and accosted him with swaggering insolence of
demeanour.

"So, Master Tom, you make fine friends! And whither away so fast in
that fine carriage? Egad, there be truth in the old adage, 'Set a
beggar on horseback, and he will ride to the devil.' Fine company,
fine company for a country bumpkin to keep! But you'll find it
finer than you think for one of these days! Ho! ho! ho!"

Lord Claud did not appear to hear or heed this newcomer's talk; but
he showed that he had taken all in by just quietly shifting the
long whip into Tom's hands, whilst himself drawing tighter the
reins.

Tom understood him in a moment. He took the whip, and the next
moment it had whistled through the air, and caught the bully a
stinging lash right across the face. At the sound of the crack of
the lash the horses started forward, and in a moment the carriage
was spinning away over the dusty road, followed by roars of
laughter from Lord Claud's friends, and by roars of a different
character from the indignant and outraged bully.

"You will have to shoot those fellows one of these days," remarked
Lord Claud coolly. "They are becoming a nuisance. Men who are a
nuisance ought to be put out of the way. London would be well rid
of them."

"They have been mine enemies from the very outset," said Tom, "from
the day when first we met, and you came to my rescue when they were
baiting me. They have owed me a grudge ever since; but hitherto