ikewise, choosing the nearest by-
lane in preference to the high-road, without knowing that Georgy had
chosen that by-lane also.

'He had not trotted more than two miles in the personal character of
Georgy Crookhill when, suddenly rounding a bend that the lane made
thereabout, he came upon a man struggling in the hands of two village
constables. It was his friend Georgy, the borrower of his clothes and
horse. But so far was the young farmer from showing any alacrity in
rushing forward to claim his property that he would have turned the poor
beast he rode into the wood adjoining, if he had not been already
perceived.

'"Help, help, help!" cried the constables. "Assistance in the name of
the Crown!"

'The young farmer could do nothing but ride forward. "What's the
matter?" he inquired, as coolly as he could.

'"A deserter--a deserter!" said they. "One who's to be tried by court-
martial and shot without parley. He deserted from the Dragoons at
Cheltenham some days ago, and was tracked; but the search-party can't
find him anywhere, and we told 'em if we met him we'd hand him on to 'em
forthwith. The day after he left the barracks the rascal met a
respectable farmer and made him drunk at an inn, and told him what a fine
soldier he would make, and coaxed him to change clothes, to see how well
a military uniform would become him. This the simple farmer did; when
our deserter said that for a joke he would leave the room and go to the
landlady, to see if she would know him in that dress. He never came
back, and Farmer Jollice found himself in soldier's clothes, the money in
his pockets gone, and, when he got to the stable, his horse gone too."

'"A scoundrel!" says the young man in Georgy's clothes. "And is this the
wretched caitiff?" (pointing to Georgy).

'"No, no!" cries Georgy, as innocent as a babe of this matter of the
soldier's desertion. "He's the man! He was wearing Farmer Jollice's
suit o' clothes, and he slept in the same room wi' me, and brought up the
subject of changing clothes, which put it into my head to dress myself in
his suit before he was awake. He's got on mine!"

'"D'ye hear the villain?" groans the tall young man to the constables.
"Trying to get out of his crime by charging the first innocent man with
it that he sees! No, master soldier--that won't do!"

'"No, no! That won't do!" the constables chimed in. "To have the
impudence to say such as that, when we caught him in the act