s. If he does not leave
before nightfall, we will come up to the house and reconnoitre. If
he does not leave by ten, he is here for the night, and we must
make ourselves as snug as we can under a stack. The nights are
getting cold, but we have slept out in a deal colder weather than
this. However, I fancy he will go on. It is early for a man to
finish a journey. If he does, we must follow him, and keep him in
sight, if possible."

Two hours later they saw, from their hiding place, Nicholson ride
out from the lane. He turned his horse's head in their direction.

"That is good," Charlie said. "If he is bound for London, we shall
be able to get into his company somehow; but if he had gone up to
some quiet place north, we might have had a lot of difficulty in
getting acquainted with him."

As soon as the man had ridden past they leapt to their feet, and,
at a run, kept along the hedge. He had started at a brisk trot, but
when, a quarter of a mile on, they reached a gate, and looked up
the road after him, they saw to their satisfaction that the horse
had already fallen into a walk.

"He does not mean to go far from Barnet," Charlie exclaimed. "If he
had been bound farther, he would have kept on at a trot. We will
keep on behind the hedges as long as we can. If he were to look
back and see us always behind him, he might become suspicious."

They had no difficulty in keeping up with the horseman. Sometimes,
when they looked out, he was a considerable distance ahead, having
quickened his pace; but he never kept that up long, and by brisk
running, and dashing recklessly through the hedges running at right
angles to that they were following, they soon came up to him again.

Once, he had gone so far ahead that they took to the road, and
followed it until he again slackened his speed. They thus kept him
in sight till they neared Barnet.

"We can take to the road now," Harry said. "Even if he should look
round, he will think nothing of seeing two men behind him. We might
have turned into it from some by-lane. At any rate, we must chance
it. We must find where he puts up for the night."

Chapter 17: The North Coach.

Barnet was then, as now, a somewhat straggling place. Soon after
entering it, the horseman turned off from the main road. His
pursuers were but fifty yards behind him, and they kept him in
sight until, after proceeding a quarter of a mile, he stopped at a
small tavern, where he dismounted, and a boy too