y fair and straightforward, my lord,' the constable
answered, falling naturally into abeyance to orders. 'I am sure that all
of us wishes your lordship kindly out of this rum scrape. But my duty is
my duty.'

"With a few more words we all set forth, six in number, and no more; for
the constable said that the miller's men, who had first found the late
Lord Castlewood, were witnesses enough for him. And Jacob Rigg, whose
legs were far apart (as he said) from trenching celery, took us through
the kitchen-garden, and out at a gap, which saved every body knowing.

"Then we passed through a copse or two, and across a meadow, and then
along the turnpike-road, as far as now I can remember. And along that we
went to a stile on the right, without any house for a long way off. And
from that stile a foot-path led down a slope of grass land to the little
river, and over a hand-bridge, and up another meadow full of trees and
bushes, to a gate which came out into the road again a little to this
side of the Moonstock Inn, saving a quarter of a mile of road, which ran
straight up the valley and turned square at the stone bridge to get to
the same inn.

"I can not expect to be clear to you, miss, though I see it all now as
I saw it then, every tree, and hump, and hedge of it; only about the
distances from this to that, and that to the other, they would be
beyond me. You must be on the place itself; and I never could carry
distances--no, nor even clever men, I have heard my master say. But when
he came to that stile he stopped and turned upon all of us clearly, and
as straight as any man of men could be. 'Here I saw my father last, at
a quarter past ten o'clock last night, or within a few minutes of that
time.' I wished to see him to his inn, but he would not let me do so, and
he never bore contradiction. He said that he knew the way well, having
fished more than thirty years ago up and down this stream. He crossed
this stile, and we shook hands over it, and the moon being bright, I
looked into his face, and he said, 'My boy, God bless you!' Knowing his
short ways, I did not even look after him, but turned away, and went
straight home along this road. Upon my word as an Englishman, and as an
officer of her Majesty, that is all I know of it. Now let us go on to
the--to the other place.

"We all of us knew in our hearts, I am sure, that the Captain spoke
the simple truth, and his face was grand as he looked at us. But the
constable thou