selves conspirators, the eight men
crouched in the darkened hall, listening to steps on the soft grass of
the lawn. There was the low growl of a dog, a short bark, and then a
muttered oath, a thud, and a groan that was not human. Poor Basil
Perrowne ground his teeth, for he had heard the last gasp of the
faithful Muggins. A hand was on the outside knob of the door. Mr. Bangs
turned the key and drew back the catch of the lock, when two men thrust
themselves in. "Ware's the lights, you blarsted fool?" one of the
ruffians asked. The detective drew back, and the others with him, till
all five had entered. Then Mr. Perrowne threw open the office door, and
Timotheus that of the linen closet. In the sudden light cast on the
scene the pistol men fired and the burglars tumbled back, two hanging on
to three. "Don't shoot," cried Mr. Bangs to the gunners, "but kem on,
fellow them up." After the fugitives they went, not too quickly,
although the bereaved parson was longing for a shot at the murderer of
Muggins. The burglars were on the road, and the waggon, driven by a
woman, was coming to meet them. "Now then," said the detective, as a
couple of revolver shots whizzed past him, "give the scoundrels thet
velley, before there's any denger of hitting the woman." The four guns
were emptied with terrible effect, for the woman had to descend in order
to get her load of villainy on. The detective gave but one minute for
that purpose, and then ordered a pursuit; but the waggon had turned,
and, spite of screams and oaths that made hideous the night air, the
woman drove furiously, all unconscious, apparently, that her course
betrayed itself by a trail of human blood. "Nen ere killed outright,"
remarked Mr. Bangs, "bet I downt believe a single mether's sen of them
escaped without a good big merk of recognition."

"Do you think we have seen the last of them, Bangs?" asked the Squire.

"Certainly! This wes a lest desperate effort of a broken-up geng."

"I wonder who that woman can have been," said Mr. Errol. "I know most of
the people about here by sight."

"She's a very clever yeng woman," Mr. Bangs answered, evasively.

"It'll no be Newcome's daughter?" half asked the Squire.

The detective drew Mr. Carruthers aside, and said: "It wes to hev been
Serlizer, bet she wouldn't gow, even if Ben hed ellowed her; bet a nice
gel from wey beck, a cousin of Ben's, whom he had never seen before, end
who hed just called on Mrs. Towner in the eftern