young lady who has disappeared lays claim to your
honour's estates at Estcombe.'

'At Estcombe?'

'Yes, sir.'

Sir George did not reply, but stood staring at the man, his mind divided
between two thoughts. The first that this was the solution of the many
things that had puzzled him in Julia; at once the explanation of her
sudden amiability, her new-born forwardness, the mysterious fortune into
which she had come, and of her education and her strange past. She was
his cousin, the unknown claimant! She was his cousin, and--

He awoke with a start, dragged away by the second thought--hard
following on the first. 'From Manton Corner?' he cried, his voice keen,
his eye terrible. 'Who saw it?'

'One of the servants,' the landlord answered, 'who had gone to the top
of the Mound to clean the mirrors in the summer-house. Here, you,' he
continued, beckoning to a man who limped forward reluctantly from one of
the side passages in which he had been standing, 'show yourself, and
tell this gentleman the story you told me.'

'If it please your honour,' the fellow whimpered, 'it was no fault of
mine. I ran down to give the alarm as soon as I saw what was doing--they
were forcing her into the carriage then--but I was in such a hurry I
fell and rolled to the bottom of the Mound, and was that dazed and
shaken it was five minutes before I could find any one.'

'How many were there?' Sir George asked. There was an ugly light in his
eyes and his cheeks burned. But he spoke with calmness.

'Two I saw, and there may have been more. The chaise had been waiting in
the yard of the empty house at the corner, the old Nag's Head. I saw it
come out. That was the first thing I did see. And then the lady.'

'Did she seem to be unwilling?' the man in the Ramillies asked. 'Did she
scream?'

'Ay, she screamed right enough,' the fellow answered lumpishly. 'I heard
her, though the noise came faint-like. It is a good distance, your
honour'll mind, and some would not have seen what I saw.'

'And she struggled?'

'Ay, sir, she did. They were having a business with her when I left, I
can tell you.'

The picture was too much for Sir George. Gripping the landlord's
shoulder so fiercely that Smith winced and cried out, 'And you have
heard this man,' he said, 'and you chatter here? Fools! This is no
matter for words, but for horses and pistols! Get me a horse and
pistols--and tell my servant. Are you so many dolls? D--n you,
sir'--this to Mr. Fish