rtainly one wanted a different driver, for whether it was our crops at
Old Brownsmith's, or the idea that he had undertaken a great
responsibility in taking charge of me, or whether at any moment he
anticipated meeting with an accident, I don't know. All I do know is
that Mr Solomon did not speak to me once, but sat rolling the
flower-stalk in his mouth, and staring right before him, aiming straight
at some place or another that was going to be my prison, and all the
while the sturdy horse trotted fast, the wheels spun round, and there
was a disposition on the part of my box to hop and slide about on the
great knot in the centre made by the cord.

Fields and hedgerows, and gentlemen's residences with lawns and gardens,
first on one side and then on another, but they only suggested
hiding-places to me as I sat there wondering what would be the
consequences if I were to slip over the back of the seat on to my box
when Mr Solomon was not looking, and then over the back of the cart and
escape.

The idea was too childish, but it kept coming again and again all
through that dismal journey.

All at once, after an hour's drive, I caught sight of a great white
house among some trees, and as we passed it Mr Solomon slowly turned
round to me and gave his head a jerk, which nearly shook off his hat.
Then he poked it back straight with the handle of his whip, and I
wondered what he meant; but realised directly after that he wished to
draw my attention to that house as being probably the one to which we
were bound, for a few minutes later, after driving for some distance by
a high blank wall, he stuck the whip behind him, and the horse stopped
of its own accord with its nose close to some great closed gates.

On either side of these was a brick pillar, with what looked like an
enormous stone egg in an egg-cup on the top, while on the right-hand
pillar there was painted a square white patch, in the centre of which
was a black knob looking out of it like an eye.

I quite started, so wrapped was I in thought, when Mr Solomon spoke for
the first time in a sharp decided way.

"Pop out and pull that bell," he said, looking at it as if he wondered
whether it would ring without being touched.

I hurriedly got down and pulled the knob, feeling ashamed the next
moment for my act seemed to have awakened the sleepy place. There was a
tremendous jangling of a great angry-voiced bell which sounded hollow
and echoing all over the place; t