of the peat fire could never
have deepened my mood.

And if I should succeed in reaching London, what then? Would the wild
savage from the rocky shore of Ireland be a pleasing sight to my Lady
Mary when once more amid the glamour and whirl of the fashionable
town? Besides, I could no longer travel on the guineas of Jem Bottles.
He had engaged himself and his purse in my service because I had told
him of a fortune involved in the regaining of certain papers. I had
regained those papers, and then coolly placed them as a gift in a
certain lovely white hand. I had had no more thought of Jem Bottles
and his five guineas than if I had never seen them. But this was no
excuse for a gentleman. When I was arrived at the rendezvous I must
immediately confess to Jem Bottles, the highwayman, that I had wronged
him. I did not expect him to demand satisfaction, but I thought he
might shoot me in the back as I was riding away.

But Jem was not at the appointed place under the tree. Not puzzled at
this behaviour, I rode on. I saw I could not expect the man to stay
for ever under a tree while I was away in Bristol fighting a duel and
making eyes at a lady. Still, I had heard that it was always done.

At the inn where Paddy holed Forister, I did not dismount, although a
hostler ran out busily. "No," said I. "I ride on." I looked at the
man. Small, sharp-eyed, weazened, he was as likely a rascal of a
hostler as ever helped a highwayman to know a filled purse from a man
who was riding to make arrangements with his creditors.

"Do you remember me?" said I.

"No, sir," he said with great promptitude.

"Very good," said I. "I knew you did. Now I want to know if Master Jem
Bottles has passed this way to-day. A shilling for the truth and a
thrashing for a lie."

The man came close to my stirrup. "Master," he said, "I know you to be
a friend of him. Well, in day-time he don't ride past our door. There
be lanes. And so he ain't passed here, and that's the truth."

I flung him a shilling. "Now," I said, "what of the red giant?"

The man opened his little eyes in surprise. "He took horse with you
gentlemen and rode on to Bristol, or I don't know."

"Very good; now I see two very fine horses champing in the yard. And
who owns them?"

If I had expected to catch him in treachery I was wrong.

"Them?" said he, jerking his thumb. He still kept his voice lowered.
"They belong to two gentlemen who rode out some hours agone along with
some gr