n the road.

'"A long time," answers my grandfather, putting on a scared look, and
halting in his words. "This piece of ground belongs to me"--which
was true enough, but didn't sound likely; for he was always a
careless man in his dress (the only matter over which he and my
grandmother had words now and then), and to-day, feeling he had the
whip-hand of her, he had taken advantage to wear an old piece of
sacking in place of a coat.

'"Oh, indeed," says the Jew, more than dubious, and thinking, no
doubt, of the three guineas that was the regular reward for taking an
escaped prisoner.

'"It's the tarnal truth," says my grandfather, and fell to whistling,
like a man facing it out. But the tune he chose was "Yankee Doodle!"
This, of course, made the Jew dead sure of his man. But he was a
lean little wisp of a man, and my grandfather too strongly built to
be tackled. So the pair stood eyeing one another until, glancing up,
my grandfather saw three soldiers come round the corner of the road
from Plymouth, and with that he dropped his biddick and turned like a
desperate man.

'The Jew saw them too, and almost upon the same instant.
"Help, help!" he yelled, and leaving his bag where he had dropped it,
tore down the road to meet the soldiers, waving both arms and still
shouting, "Help! A prisoner! A prisoner!"

'My grandfather always said afterwards that, when he heard this, he
fairly groaned. He wasn't by any means humorous as a rule, and, so
far as he was concerned, the joke had gone far enough; and he used to
add as a warning that a man may go so far in a joke he can't help but
go farther--'tis like hysterics with women. At any rate, he saw the
soldiers coming for him at the double, spreading themselves to head
him off, and as they came he broke and ran straight up the slope
towards the head of the tor.

'This violent exercise didn't suit him at all, and glad enough he
was, after two minutes of it, to note that the soldiers were
shortening the distance hand over fist. For a moment he had a mind
to drop, as though worn out with hunger and exhaustion, but his face
and shape wouldn't lend themselves to that deceit. So he held on and
did his best, until the foremost soldier drew within thirty yards and
shouted out, threatening to fire. Turning and seeing that he had his
musket almost at the "present," my grandfather dropped his arms,
stood still, and allowed them to take him like a lamb.

'"But," said he, sul