, to place that
evidence beyond Sir Percival's reach. The copy of the register was
sure to be safe in Mr. Wansborough's strong room. But the position of
the original in the vestry was, as I had seen with my own eyes,
anything but secure.

In this emergency I resolved to return to the church, to apply again to
the clerk, and to take the necessary extract from the register before I
slept that night. I was not then aware that a legally-certified copy
was necessary, and that no document merely drawn out by myself could
claim the proper importance as a proof. I was not aware of this, and my
determination to keep my present proceedings a secret prevented me from
asking any questions which might have procured the necessary
information. My one anxiety was the anxiety to get back to Old
Welmingham. I made the best excuses I could for the discomposure in my
face and manner which Mr. Wansborough had already noticed, laid the
necessary fee on his table, arranged that I should write to him in a
day or two, and left the office, with my head in a whirl and my blood
throbbing through my veins at fever heat.

It was just getting dark. The idea occurred to me that I might be
followed again and attacked on the high-road.

My walking-stick was a light one, of little or no use for purposes of
defence. I stopped before leaving Knowlesbury and bought a stout
country cudgel, short, and heavy at the head. With this homely weapon,
if any one man tried to stop me I was a match for him. If more than
one attacked me I could trust to my heels. In my school-days I had
been a noted runner, and I had not wanted for practice since in the
later time of my experience in Central America.

I started from the town at a brisk pace, and kept the middle of the
road.

A small misty rain was falling, and it was impossible for the first
half of the way to make sure whether I was followed or not. But at the
last half of my journey, when I supposed myself to be about two miles
from the church, I saw a man run by me in the rain, and then heard the
gate of a field by the roadside shut to sharply. I kept straight on,
with my cudgel ready in my hand, my ears on the alert, and my eyes
straining to see through the mist and the darkness. Before I had
advanced a hundred yards there was a rustling in the hedge on my right,
and three men sprang out into the road.

I drew aside on the instant to the footpath. The two foremost men were
carried beyond me bef