B was terribly upset when she found we were going away again
without luncheon; and she made us take some cold pork-pies in our
pockets to eat on the way.

When we got to Puddleby Court-house (it was next door to the prison), we
found a great crowd gathered around the building.

This was the week of the Assizes--a business which happened every three
months, when many pick-pockets and other bad characters were tried by
a very grand judge who came all the way from London. And anybody in
Puddleby who had nothing special to do used to come to the Court-house
to hear the trials.

But to-day it was different. The crowd was not made up of just a few
idle people. It was enormous. The news had run through the countryside
that Luke the Hermit was to be tried for killing a man and that the
great mystery which had hung over him so long was to be cleared up
at last. The butcher and the baker had closed their shops and taken a
holiday. All the farmers from round about, and all the townsfolk,
were there with their Sunday clothes on, trying to get seats in the
Court-house or gossipping outside in low whispers. The High Street was
so crowded you could hardly move along it. I had never seen the quiet
old town in such a state of excitement before. For Puddleby had not had
such an Assizes since 1799, when Ferdinand Phipps, the Rector's oldest
son, had robbed the bank.

If I hadn't had the Doctor with me I am sure I would never have been
able to make my way through the mob packed around the Court-house door.
But I just followed behind him, hanging on to his coat-tails; and at
last we got safely into the jail.

"I want to see Luke," said the Doctor to a very grand person in a blue
coat with brass buttons standing at the door.

"Ask at the Superintendent's office," said the man. "Third door on the
left down the corridor."

"Who is that person you spoke to, Doctor?" I asked as we went along the
passage.

"He is a policeman."

"And what are policemen?"

"Policemen? They are to keep people in order. They've just been
invented--by Sir Robert Peel. That's why they are also called 'peelers'
sometimes. It is a wonderful age we live in. They're always thinking of
something new--This will be the Superintendent's office, I suppose."

From there another policeman was sent with us to show us the way.

Outside the door of Luke's cell we found Bob, the bulldog, who wagged
his tail sadly when he saw us. The man who was guiding us took a large