speed
increased, and the Toad could see on either side of him real fields, and
trees, and hedges, and cows, and horses, all flying past him, and as
he thought how every minute was bringing him nearer to Toad Hall, and
sympathetic friends, and money to chink in his pocket, and a soft bed
to sleep in, and good things to eat, and praise and admiration at the
recital of his adventures and his surpassing cleverness, he began to
skip up and down and shout and sing snatches of song, to the great
astonishment of the engine-driver, who had come across washerwomen
before, at long intervals, but never one at all like this.

They had covered many and many a mile, and Toad was already considering
what he would have for supper as soon as he got home, when he noticed
that the engine-driver, with a puzzled expression on his face, was
leaning over the side of the engine and listening hard. Then he saw him
climb on to the coals and gaze out over the top of the train; then he
returned and said to Toad: 'It's very strange; we're the last train
running in this direction to-night, yet I could be sworn that I heard
another following us!'

Toad ceased his frivolous antics at once. He became grave and depressed,
and a dull pain in the lower part of his spine, communicating itself to
his legs, made him want to sit down and try desperately not to think of
all the possibilities.

By this time the moon was shining brightly, and the engine-driver,
steadying himself on the coal, could command a view of the line behind
them for a long distance.

Presently he called out, 'I can see it clearly now! It is an engine, on
our rails, coming along at a great pace! It looks as if we were being
pursued!'

The miserable Toad, crouching in the coal-dust, tried hard to think of
something to do, with dismal want of success.

'They are gaining on us fast!' cried the engine-driver. And the engine
is crowded with the queerest lot of people! Men like ancient warders,
waving halberds; policemen in their helmets, waving truncheons; and
shabbily dressed men in pot-hats, obvious and unmistakable plain-clothes
detectives even at this distance, waving revolvers and walking-sticks;
all waving, and all shouting the same thing--"Stop, stop, stop!"'

Then Toad fell on his knees among the coals and, raising his clasped
paws in supplication, cried, 'Save me, only save me, dear kind Mr.
Engine-driver, and I will confess everything! I am not the simple
washerwoman I seem to