at general.

But with all his smirking, Dolly Varden only laughed at him. To tell the
truth, she was very fond of young Joe Willet, whose father kept the
Maypole Inn, very near The Warren where her friend Emma Haredale lived.
Joe was a good, brave fellow, and was head over ears in love with Dolly,
but Dolly was a coquette, and never let him know how much she cared for
him. Joe was not contented at home, for his father seemed to think him a
child and did not treat him according to his years, so that but for
leaving Dolly Varden he would long ago have run away to seek his
fortune.

Both Joe and Dolly knew how Edward Chester loved Emma Haredale, and they
used sometimes to carry notes from one to the other, since the hatred of
Sir John for Emma's uncle often prevented the lovers from meeting.

Sir John found this out, and bribed a hostler at the Maypole Inn to spy
for him and prevent, if he could, these letters passing. The hostler was
an uncouth, drunken giant that people called Maypole Hugh, as strong as
an ox, and cruel and cunning. Hugh watched carefully, and from time to
time would go to Sir John's house in London and report what he had
seen.

II

THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AND WHO HE WAS

About this time residents in the neighborhood of The Warren and the
Maypole Inn began to tell tales of a mysterious man who roamed about the
country-side.

He was seen often and by many persons, always at night, skulking in the
shadow or riding furiously on a horse. He was fierce and haggard and
discourteous to travelers, wore a slouch hat which he never took off,
and generally kept the lower part of his face muffled in a handkerchief.
He always went alone. Some said he slept in church-yards, others that he
never slept at all, and still others that he was a wicked man who had
sold his soul to the Evil One.

One night he rested at the Maypole Inn, and a little while after he had
gone, Varden the locksmith, Dolly's father, as he drove home, found
Edward Chester lying in the road, having been wounded and robbed of his
money. Barnaby Rudge had seen the attack and was bending over him. He
had been too frightened to give aid, but from his description Varden
knew the robber was the stranger who had stopped at the inn.

The honest locksmith took Edward into his chaise, drove him to Barnaby's
house, which was near by, and left him in care of Mrs. Rudge, where a
doctor soon dressed the wound, which was not serious.

Next day Mr. Va