," a voice, which Reuben
recognized as that of his old enemy, said. "I owe him one, and it
will be safest to stop his mouth."

"No, no," a third voice protested; "I ain't going to have nothing
to do with cutting throats. I don't mind running the risk of Botany
Bay, but I ain't going to run the chance of being scragged. But
let's move a bit away from here, while we settle it. You hit him
pretty hard, but he will be coming round presently. I thought at
first that you had killed him, but he's bleeding too free for
that."

The men moved some little distance away, and for some time Reuben
could hear a murmured talk, but could make out nothing of what had
been said. It was, he judged, a quarter of an hour before the
conversation ceased. They did not return to him but remained at
some distance off, and Reuben thought that he heard the footsteps
of one of them going down the lane. He could feel, by a warm
sensation across his cheek, that the blood was flowing freely from
the wound he had received on his temple. A dull torpid feeling came
over him, and after a time he again lost consciousness.

How long he remained in this state he did not know, but he was at
last aroused by being lifted and thrown into the bottom of the
cart. Four men then climbed up into it and the horse was started.
They drove at a quick pace, and Reuben wondered why they were
taking him away with them. His head ached terribly, and he suffered
much from the tightness of the cords which bound his arms. The men
seemed in high good humour, and talked and laughed in low tones;
but the noise of the vehicle prevented Reuben hearing what was
said.

It was, as far as he could judge, full two hours before the vehicle
stopped. He was roughly taken out of the cart, his arms were
unbound; and the men, leaping up, drove away at full speed. The
spot where he had been left was very dark, for trees overshadowed
it on both sides. Where he was he had no idea, but he judged that
he must be fully twenty miles from the village.

His first impulse was to take the handkerchief from his mouth, and
he then walked slowly along the road, in the direction from which
he had come. It was, he felt sure, no use shouting; for they would
have been certain to have selected some lonely spot to set him
down, and there would be no chance of awakening the inhabitants of
any distant cottage. He walked slowly, for he was faint with loss
of blood.

After proceeding about a quarter of a mile