not the rector of
this very parish."

By this time, as you will guess, I had no doubt of his madness. To begin
with, anyone less like a parson it would be hard to pick in a crowd, and,
besides, I remembered some of his language to the highwaymen.

"It _ought_ to be hereabouts," he went on meditatively. "And if it should
turn out to be my parish we must make an effort to get your money back, if
only for our credit's sake, hey?"

"Oh," said I, suspicious all of a sudden, "if these ruffians are your
parishioners and you know them--"

"Know them?" he caught me up. "How the devil should I know them?
I've never been within a hundred miles of this country in my life."

"You say 'tis your parish--"

"I don't. I only say that it may be."

"But, excuse me, if you've never seen it before--"

"I don't see it now," he snapped.

"Then excuse me again, but how on earth do you propose--here in the dead
of night, on an outlandish moorland, in a country you have never seen--to
discover a chest of treasure which seven or eight scoundrelly, able-bodied
natives are at this moment making off with and hiding?"

"The problem, my friend, as you state it is too easy; too ridiculously
easy. 'Natives' you say: I only hope they may be. The difficulty will
only begin if we discover them to be strangers to these parts."

"Have mercy then on my poor dull wits, sir, and take the case at its
easiest. We'll suppose these fellows to be natives. Still, how are you
to discover their whereabouts and the whereabouts of my pay-chest?"

"Why, man alive, by the simple expedient of finding a house, knocking at
the door, and asking! You don't suppose, do you, that seven or eight
able-bodied men can commit highway robbery upon one of His Majesty's
coaches and their neighbours be none the wiser? I tell you, these rural
parishes are the veriest gossip-shops on earth. Go to a city if you want
to lose a secret, not to a God-forsaken moor like this around us, where
every labourer's thatch hums with rumour. Moreover, you forget that as a
parish priest among this folk--as curator of their souls--I may have
unusually good opportunities--" Here he checked himself, while I shrugged
my shoulders. "By the way, it may interest you to hear how I came by this
benefice. Can you manage to walk? If so, I will tell you on the road,
and we shall be losing no time."

I stood up and announced that I could limp a little. He offered me his
arm.

"It's an