to do with the robbery, though he was carrying a
brace of pistols, too; however, we have got them all three.

"Now, you see, Bastow, this takes the affair altogether out of our
hands. I had hoped that when we caught your son in the act of breaking
into your house after you had ordered him from it, we should be able to
frighten him into enlisting, or, at any rate, into promising to disturb
you no more, for even if we had taken him before the bench, nothing
could have been done to him, for under such circumstances his
re-entering the house could not be looked upon as an act of burglary. As
it is, the affair is altogether changed. Even if I wished to do so, as a
magistrate I could not release those two highwaymen; they must appear as
prisoners in court. I shall hear down in the town tomorrow morning what
coach has been stopped, and I have no doubt that they have on them the
proceeds of the robbery. Your son was consorting with and aiding them,
and acting as a receiver of stolen goods, and as you have heard horses
here before it is probable that when his room is thoroughly searched we
shall come upon a number of articles of the same sort. I am sorry that
I ever meddled in the matter; but it is too late for that now. You had
better come downstairs with me, and we will take a turn in the garden,
and try to see what had best be done."

CHAPTER III.

John Thorndyke opened the shutters of the parlor window, and stepped out
into the garden alone, for the Rector was too unnerved and shattered to
go out with him, but threw himself on the sofa, completely prostrated.
Half an hour later the Squire re-entered the room. The morning was just
beginning to break. Mr. Bastow raised his head and looked sadly at him.

"I can see no way out of it, old friend. Were it not that he is in
charge of the constable, I should have said that your only course was
to aid your son to escape; but Knapp is a shrewd fellow as well as
an honest one. You cannot possibly get your son away without his
assistance, for he is handcuffed to the bed, and Knapp, in so serious a
matter as this, would not, I am sure, lend himself to an escape. I have
no doubt that with my influence with the other magistrates, and, indeed,
on the circumstances of the case, they will commit him on a minor charge
only, as the passengers of the coach will, I hope, give evidence that it
was stopped by mounted men alone. I think, therefore, that he would
only be charged with conso