"Ho! Ho!" said I. "Tell me about it, little woman!"
"I was wishing my Jim good night at the gate, just before father came
home, when a man riding by pulled up and asked the road to Ellerton
Grange."
"Did you make him out, Nance?" I asked.
"Not much of him, sir, but the moon shone on his face when he took his
hat off to wipe his forehead, and it looked for all the world like an
addled duck-egg."
"Well put, Nance," said I, laughing. "First time I saw that face I
thought it was like a bladder of lard."
"You know him, sir?"
"I think I do, Nance, and I must be after him."
Out of the robber's string of pistols I selected a pair for myself. They
were lawful prize, and equal in quality to those Master Freake had given
me, so that the rascal had probably stolen them. I saw that all the others
were loaded, and advised Job to watch him all night and to lift him, chair
and all, into a cart the next morning and drive him off to the nearest
Justice.
Job and his wife renewed their thanks when I was in the saddle. Nance
insisted on coming to open the gate, and on the way there she gave me full
and careful directions as to the way to Tutcheter and thence to the Grange.
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