owered from the
window; the chariot and property wagon were drawn from the stable yard
and the horses led from their stalls. In a trice they were ready and
the ladies, wrapped in their cloaks, were in the coach. But the
clatter of hoofs, the neighing of a horse, or some other untoward
circumstance, aroused the landlord; a window in the second story shot
up and out popped a head in a night-cap.

"Here!--What are you about?" cried the man.

"Leaving!" said the manager, laconically.

The landlord threw up his arms like Shylock at the loss of his
money-bags.

"The reckoning!" he exclaimed. "What about the reckoning?"

"Your pound of flesh, sir!" replied Barnes.

"My score! My score!" shouted the other. "You would not leave without
settling it!"

"Go to bed, sir," was the answer, "and let honest people depart
without hindrance. You will be paid out of our first profits."

But the man was not so easily appeased. "Robbers! Constable!" he
screamed.

Conceiving it was better to be gone without further parley, having
assured him of their honorable intentions, Barnes was about to lash
the horses, when Kate suddenly exclaimed:

"Where's Constance?"

"Isn't she inside?" asked the manager quickly.

"No; she isn't here."

"Oh, I sent her back to get something for me I had forgotten," spoke
up Mrs. Adams, "and she hasn't returned yet."

"Sent her back! Madam, you have ruined everything!" burst out Barnes,
bitterly.

"Mr. Barnes, I won't be spoken to like a child!"

"Child, indeed--"

But the querulous words were not uttered, for, as the manager was
about to leave the box in considerable perturbation, there--gazing down
upon them at a window next to that occupied by the landlord--stood
Constance!

For a tippet, or a ruff, or some equally wretched frippery, carelessly
left by the old lady, all their plans for deliverance appeared likely
to miscarry. Presumably, Constance, turned from her original purpose
by the noisy altercation, had hurried to the window, where now the
landlord perceived her and immediately availed himself of the
advantage offered.

"So one of you is left behind," he shouted exultantly. "And it's the
leading lady, too! I'll take care she stays here, until after a
settlement. I'll stop you yet! Stealing away in the middle of the
night, you--you vagabonds!"

His voice, growing louder and louder, ended in a shrieking crescendo.
Disheartened, there seemed no alternative for the players save to t