Hugh Ritson stepped to Drayton's side. When he spoke his voice was like a cold blast of wind. "Now listen: From this moment at which you change your coat for his you cease to be Paul Drayton, and become Paul Ritson." "Didn't you say I was to be Paul Lowther?" "That will come later." "As I say, it won't go into my nob." "No matter; say nothing to yourself but this, 'I am to pretend to be Paul Ritson.'" "Well, now for it!" "Ready?" asked Hugh. He returned to the bed-head. "Ready." "Then give a hand here. We must put him up into your garret. When the police come for him he must seem to be in hiding and in drink. You understand?" A low, hoarse laugh was the only answer. Then they lifted the unconscious man from the bed, opened the door, and carried him into the passage. Mercy recovered her stunned senses. When the men were gone she crept out on tiptoe and tripped down the passage to her own room. At the door she reeled and fell heavily. Then, in a vague state of consciousness, she heard these words passed over her--"Carry her back into her room and lock her in." At the same instant she felt herself being lifted in a strong man's arms. CHAPTER XVI. Before Gubblum Oglethorpe parted with Jabez, he tried to undo the mischief he had done. "Give us a shak' o' thy daddle," he said, holding out his hand. But Jabez had not forgotten the similitude of the swine ring. He made no response. "Dang him for a fool!" thought Gubblum. "He's as daft as a besom." Then Gubblum remembered with what lavish generosity he had bribed the pot-boy to no purpose. "He cover't a shilling dammish," he thought; "I'll dang his silly head off!" Jabez put down the candle and backed out of the room, his eyes fixed on the peddler with a ghostly stare. "You needn't boggle at me. I'll none hurt ye," said Gubblum. Jabez pulled the door after him. "His head's no'but a lump of puddin' and a daub o' pancake," thought Gubblum. Then the peddler sat on the bed and began to wonder what possible reason there might be for the lad's sudden change of temper. He sat long, and many crude notions trotted through his brain. At last he recalled the fact that he had said something about Jabez's snout carrying a swine ring. That was the rub, sure enough. "I mak' no doobt he thowt it was a by-wipe," thought Gubblum. Just as the peddler had arrived at this sapient conclusion, he heard heavy footsteps ascending and descending the ladder that stood in the passage outside. Gubblum understood the sounds to mean that the inn was so full of visitors that some of them had to be lodged even in the loft. "Ey, I shouldn't wonder but this is a bonny paying consarn," he thought. He undressed, got into bed, and blew out his light. He lay awhile waiting for sleep, and thinking of the failure of his plummets to sound the depths of Jabez. Then he remembered with vexation that the lad had even laughed at him in spite of the "shilling dammish."