Cruel As The Grave

"Bob tell me: how was it that we were found out?"

"Well, you see, Miss--Ma'am--when you were at Dunville, where you was

said to have staid all night, there was a fellow there who had a habit

for which he ought to be hung--of looking through the key-holes and

watching ladies when they thought themselves unseen. And this fellow saw

you take off your red wig."

"And so discovered and denounced me?"

"No, he didn't, Ma'am; he didn't even suspect who you was. He took you

for a circus woman. And as for reporting what he had seen to anybody in

that house, it would have been as much as his life was worth. Old

Colonel Purley--he's a uncle of our bailiff--old Colonel Purley would

have peeled the skin offen his body, if he had a-known he had done such

a mean thing in his tavern."

"Then how--"

"I'll tell you, Ma'am. It was this way. That fellow which, his name was

Batkin, was on his way to Blackville. And all along the road he kept

telling the yarn about the beautiful black-haired young lady he had

seen, and who had disfigured herself by wearing of a red wig; and of

course he raised suspicions there. And when he was questioned farther,

he described the wagon and horses, and the man and the woman, so

accurately that the authorities thought it worth while to take the

description down; and old Purley has it in his pocket along with the

warrant. And then, as I told you, the bailiffs all resigned rather than

go after you; and old Purley had to be appointed. And I applied, and got

appointed too, only to help you!"

"Heaven reward you for the kind thought! But, Bob, there were some of

the old set found who were willing to take me; for they went to

Annapolis after me, armed with warrant for my arrest."

"Yes; them two: Smith and Jones! Sink 'em! I've swore a oath to thrash

'em both within an inch of their lives the first time I set eyes on

them! Well, they didn't find you, Satan burn 'em! that's one comfort."

"How was it that you found us?"

"Oh, Miss Sybil--Mrs. Berners, I should say--we did it easy when we once

had got the clue. We went first to Dunville to inquire after the

gray-bearded man and his red-headed daughter, and we learned the road

you had taken, and followed you from stage to stage until we got to

Norfolk. There we inquired in the neighborhood of the market, and found

where you had put up. Then, at the 'Farmers' Hotel,' we were told, you

had left for home that afternoon. Of course we knew that was a ruse.

We knew that if you had left, it was for the deck of some outward bound

ship. So we inquired, and found out that the Enterprise was to sail in

the morning. And we staid at this house all night, and boarded the ship

this morning as you saw."