d in an hour was fast asleep, while
Sam was plodding steadily on toward the great city, growing more and
more weary as the hours passed, and longing to lie down and sleep, but
dreading to do this for fear of some policeman or tramp coming upon him,
when he felt that the result would be the same--the papers he had gone
through so much to obtain would be found, and perhaps pass entirely from
his hands.

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.

Sam Brandon was more asleep than awake when he made his way into
Westhall Station, and took a ticket for town. He had taken nearly an
hour to get over the last mile, after struggling hard during the first
part of the night to get as far as possible away from Furzebrough,
haunted as he was by the belief that the theft would be discovered
before many minutes had passed, and that he would be pitched upon as the
criminal. For though the struggle had been in the dark, and he had not
spoken a word, he felt sure that Tom must have known him, and that some
one would start very soon in pursuit. Hence, with his brain full of
handcuffs, prison cells, magistrates, and other accessories of the law,
he had toiled on through the night until utterly exhausted.

The early morning train soon came gliding into the station, and Sam took
his place, trying in vain to look careless and indifferent, and as if he
were occupied over his ordinary affairs; but it could not be done. He
looked dusty as to his boots and trousers; there was a bloodshot
appearance in his eyes; his cheeks were hollow, and his lips feverish
and cracked.

Then the other passengers kept on staring at him, and the more so
because he looked uneasily at them. In fact, as one passenger said to
himself, he looked "as if he been up to no good."

The drowsy sensation which had made him feel as if walking in a dream
had now completely passed away, and though he rested his head in a
corner, and, after buttoning up his jacket tightly, tried to sleep, he
could not lose consciousness, but sat there with every joint aching, and
a miserable feeling of weariness in his back, listening to the rattle of
the train, which kept up what sounded like some weird tune, always
beginning and never ending.

There came minutes when he felt as if he were going to be seriously ill,
for his head throbbed, and there was a burning sensation at the back of
his eyes, while the events of the past night seemed as if they had
happened a long time back.

Once when the train s