Clementina

"Have you other lodgers to-night?" he asked carelessly.

"No, sir," said she. "Travellers are taken by a big house and a bustle

of servants. They stay at the Vapore Inn when they stay at Peri, and to

their cost."

As soon as she had left the room Wogan asked of Clementina,-"When did her manner change?"

"I had not remarked the change till now," replied Clementina.

Wogan became uneasy. He went down into the courtyard, and found it

empty. There was a light in the kitchen, and he entered the room. The

landlady was having her supper in company with her few servants, and

there were one or two peasants from the village. Wogan chatted with them

for a few minutes and came out again much relieved of his fears. He

thought, however, it might be as well to see that his pony was ready for

an emergency. He crossed silently to the stable, which he found dark as

the courtyard. The door was latched, but not locked. He opened it and

went in. The building was long, with many stalls ranged side by side.

Wogan's pony stood in the end stall opposite to the door. Wogan took

down the harness from the pegs and began to fix it ready on the pony. He

had just put the collar over its head when he heard a horse stamping in

one of the stalls at the other end of the stables. Now he had noticed in

the morning that there were only two horses in the building, and those

two were tied up in the stalls next to that which his pony occupied. He

walked along the range of stalls. The two horses were there, then came a

gap of empty stalls, and beyond the gap he counted six other horses.

Wogan became at once curious about those six other horses. They might of

course be farm-horses, but he wished to know. It was quite dark within

the building; he had only counted the horses by the noise of their

movements in their stalls, the rattle of their head-ropes, and the

pawing of their feet. He dared not light a lamp, but horses as a rule

knew him for a friend. He went into the stall of the first, petted it

for a moment and ran his hand down its legs. He repeated the process

with the second, and with so much investigation he was content. No

farm-horse that ever Wogan had seen had such a smooth sleek skin or

such fine legs as had those two over which he had passed his hands. "Now

where are the masters of those horses?" he asked himself. "Why do they

leave their cattle at this inn and not show themselves in the kitchen or

the courtyard? Why do they not ask for a couple of my rooms?" Wogan

stood in the dark and reflected. Then he stepped out of the door with

even more caution than he had used when entering by it. He stole

silently along to the shed where his trap was housed, and felt beneath

the seat. From beneath the seat he drew out a coil of rope, and a lamp.

The rope he wound about him under his coat. Then he went back to his

staircase and the parlour.