at did I teach you to say to God for the poor travellers who stop at
the 'Trusty Man'?"

"'That it may please Thee to succour, help and comfort all that are in
danger, necessity and tribulation, we beseech Thee to hear us Good
Lord!'" gabbled Prue, shutting her eyes and opening them again with
great rapidity.

"That's right!" And Miss Tranter bent her head graciously. "I'm glad you
remember it so well! Be sure you say it to-night. And now you may go,
Prue."

Prue went accordingly, and Miss Tranter, resuming her knitting, returned
to the bar, and took up her watchful position opposite the clock, there
to remain patiently till closing time.

CHAPTER VII

The minutes wore on, and though some of the company at the "Trusty Man"
went away in due course, others came in to replace them, so that even
when it was nearing ten o'clock the common room was still fairly full.
Matt Peke was evidently hail-fellow-well-met with many of the loafers of
the district, and his desultory talk, with its quaint leaning towards a
kind of rustic philosophy intermingled with an assumption of profound
scientific wisdom, appeared to exercise considerable fascination over
those who had the patience and inclination to listen to it. Helmsley
accepted a pipe of tobacco offered to him by the surly-looking Dubble
and smoked peacefully, leaning back in his chair and half closing his
eyes with a drowsy air, though in truth his senses had never been more
alert, or his interest more keenly awakened. He gathered from the
general conversation that Bill Bush was an accustomed night lodger at
the "Trusty Man," that Dubble had a cottage not far distant, with a
scolding wife and an uppish daughter, and that it was because she knew
of his home discomforts that Miss Tranter allowed him to pass many of
his evenings at her inn, smoking and sipping a mild ale, which without
fuddling his brains, assisted him in part to forget for a time his
domestic worries. And he also found out that the sturdy farmer sedately
sucking his pipe in a corner, and now and then throwing in an unexpected
and random comment on whatever happened to be the topic of conversation,
was known as "Feathery" Joltram, though why "Feathery" did not seem very
clear, unless the term was, as it appeared to be, an adaptation of
"father" or "feyther" Joltram. Matt Peke explained that old "Feathery"
was a highly respected character in the "Quantocks," and not only rented
a large farm, but thoroug