ed with his booty.

The stable door was ajar. They tore it open.

The gray dawn revealed Cox fast asleep on the straw in the first empty
stall, and his bottle in the manger. His clothes were bloody, and the
man was drunk. They pulled him, cursed him, struck him, and would have
torn him in pieces, but the constables interfered, set him up against
the rail, like timber, and searched his bosom, and found--a wound; then
turned all his pockets inside out, amidst great expectation, and
found--three halfpence and the key of the stable door.

CHAPTER II

They ransacked the straw, and all the premises, and found--nothing.

Then, to make him sober and get something out of him, they pumped upon
his head till he was very nearly choked. However, it told on him. He
gasped for breath awhile, and rolled his eyes, and then coolly asked
them had they found the villain.

They shook their fists at him. "Ay, we have found the villain,
red-handed."

"I mean him as prowls about these parts in my waistcoat, and drove his
knife into me last night--wonder a didn't kill me out of hand. Have ye
found him amongst ye?"

This question met with a volley of jeers and execrations and the
constables pinioned him, and bundled him off in a cart to Bow Street,
to wait examination.

Meantime two Bow Street runners came down with a warrant, and made a
careful examination of the premises. The two keys were on the table.
Mr. Gardiner's outer door was locked. There was no money either in his
portmanteau of Captain Cowen's. Both pistols were found loaded, but no
priming in the pan of the one that lay on the bed; the other was
primed, but the bullets were above the powder.

Bradbury, one of the runners, took particular notice of all.

Outside, blood was traced from the stable to the garden wall, and under
this wall, in the grass, a bloody knife was found belonging to the
"Swan" Inn. There was one knife less in Mr. Gardiner's room than had
been carried up to his supper.

Mr. Gardiner lingered till noon, but never spoke again.

The news spread swiftly, and Captain Cowen came home in the afternoon,
very pale and shocked.

He had heard of a robbery and murder at the "Swan," and came to know
more. The landlady told him all that had transpired, and that the
villain Cox was in prison.

Cowan listened thoughtfully, and said "Cox! No doubt he is a knave:
but murder!--I should never have suspected him of that."

The landlady pooh-poohed h