e that I had still to make up arrears
of sleep, she signed to me to wish her father good-night and escorted
me out into the passage. A slip of the bolt, and I was free of the
night.

I found the spot where I had dropped into the road, and cautiously
mounted the hedge, putting the brambles aside and peering through
them into the fast falling twilight. A low whistle sounded, and Mr.
Rogers stepped into view on the footbridge. But he left a companion
behind him in the shadow of the alders, and who this might be I could
neither see nor guess.

"Is that you, Master Revel?"

There was no help for it now; so over the hedge I climbed and met
him.

"How did you find out--"

--"Your name? Miss Brooks told me, this morning. But, for that
matter, it's placarded all over Plymouth and at every public and
forge and signpost along the road. You're a notorious character, my
son."

I began to quake.

"Parson," he went on, turning and addressing the figure in the
shadow, "here's the boy. Better make haste, if you have any
questions to ask him before we get to business."

There stepped forward, not Mr. Whitmore (as I was fearfully
expecting), but a figure unknown to me; an old shovel-hatted man
leaning on a stick and buttoned to the chin in a black Inverness
cape. I felt his eyes peering at me through the dusk.

"He seems very young to be a trustworthy witness," croaked this old
gentleman in a voice which seemed to be affected by the night air.

"He's right enough," Mr. Rogers answered cheerfully.

"He shall tell his tale, then, in Mr. Whitmore's presence. I will
not yet believe that a minister of Christ's religion, whose papers--
as I have proved to you--are in order, whose testimonials are
unexceptionable, who has the Bishop's licence--"

"The Bishop's fiddlestick! The Bishop didn't license him to carry
marked guineas in his pocket, and I don't wait for a licence to carry
a warrant in mine."

"You will at least afford him an opportunity of explaining before you
execute it. To be plain with you, Mr. Rogers, this business is like
to be scandalous, however you look at it."

"The constables shall remain outside, and the warrant I'll keep in my
pocket until your reverence's doubts are at rest." Mr. Rogers gave
another low whistle and two men, hitherto concealed at a little
distance in the trees' shadow, stepped silently forward and joined
us. "Ready, lads? Quick march, then!"

We took the path up the valley