onnected with his previous life. A more sensitive man would have
shunned the scenes which had been associated with his prosperous and
nominally respectable career, but he seemed possessed with a morbid
desire to look once more upon the localities in which he had moved as
king.

He had not once returned to Sevenoaks since he left the village for the
metropolis; and although he was in bitter haste, with men near him in
pursuit, he was determined to take the longer road to safety, in order
to revisit the scene of his early enterprise and his first successes. He
knew that Old Calamity would take him to Sevenoaks in two hours, and
that then the whole village would be in its first nap. The road was
familiar, and the night not too dark. Dogs came out from farm-houses as
he rattled by, and barked furiously. He found a cow asleep in the road,
and came near being upset by her. He encountered one or two tramps, who
tried to speak to him, but he flew on until the spires of the little
town, where he had once held the supreme life, defined themselves
against the sky, far up the river. Here he brought his horse down to a
walk. The moment he was still, for he had not yet reached the roar of
the falls, he became conscious that a wagon was following him in the
distance. Old Man Coates had not only sold him his horse, but he had
sold his secret!

Old Calamity was once more put into a trot, and in ten minutes he was by
the side of his mill. Seeing the watchman in front, he pulled up, and,
in a disguised voice, inquired the way to the hotel. Having received a
rough answer, he inquired of the man whose mill he was watching.

"I don't know," responded the man. "It's stopped now. It was old
Belcher's once, but he's gone up, they say."

Mr. Belcher started on. He crossed the bridge, and drove up the steep
hill toward his mansion. Arriving at the hight, he stood still by the
side of the Seven Oaks, which had once been the glory of his country
home. Looking down into the town, he saw lights at the little tavern,
and, by the revelations of the lantern that came to the door, a horse
and wagon. At this moment, his great Newfoundland dog came bounding
toward him, growling like a lion. He had alighted to stretch his limbs,
and examine into the condition of his horse. The dog came toward him
faster and faster, and more and more menacingly, till he reached him,
and heard his own name called. Then he went down into the dust, and
fawned upon his old m