up the hill with him, to meet his carriage. He halted three
or four times in the road, still talking of the day's success.
He was even somewhat tremulous at parting.

'I shall see you to-morrow, at Tregantick?'--Tregantick is the centre
of the eight parishes included in our Petty Sessional Division, and
the seat of such justice as I and seven others help Sir Felix to
administer.

'Oh, assuredly,' said I.

I watched his carriage as it rounded the bend of the road, and so
faced about to return to the village. But I took second thought at
sight of the clouds massing across the bay and coming up--as it
seemed to me against the wind. They spelt thunder. In spite of my
early forebodings I had brought no mackintosh; my duties as a
Committee-man were over: and I have reached an age when fireworks
give me no more pleasure than I can cheerfully forgo or take for
granted. I had, having coming thus far on my homeward way, already
more than half a mind to pursue it, when the band started to render
the 'Merry Duchess' waltz, with reed instruments a semitone below the
brass. This decided me, and I reached my door as the first raindrops
fell.

When I awoke next morning it was still raining, and raining hard.
The thunderstorm had passed; but a westerly wind, following hard on
it, had collected much water from the Atlantic, and the heavens were
thick as a blanket. A tramp in the rain, however, seldom comes amiss
to me, and I trudged the three miles to the court-house in very
cheerful mood, now smoking, now pocketing my pipe to inhale those
first delicious scents of autumn, stored up by summer for a long day
of downpour.

Our Court meets at 11.15, and I timed myself (so well I know the road
in all weathers) to reach the magistrates' door on the stroke of the
quarter. Now Sir Felix, as Chairman, makes a point of arriving ten
or fifteen minutes ahead of time, for a preliminary chat with the
Clerk over the charge-sheet and any small details of business.
I was astonished, therefore, when, turning at the sound of wheels, I
beheld Sir Felix's carriage and pair descending the street behind me.
'Truly the Regatta must have unsettled his habits,' I murmured; and
then, catching the eye of one of the pair of constables posted at the
door, I gazed again and stood, as some of my fellow-novelists say,
'transfixed.' For the driver on the box was neither Sir Felix's
coachman, nor his second coachman, nor yet again one of his
stablemen;