The station-master (who, as usual, was postmaster too) received this message from my hands, and the remainder of the population--I mean the porter and the constable--who were with him at the time read it over his shoulder. They all three looked hard at me, and the station-master said "Tenpence!" in a tone which made my blood curdle. I was doomed to be suspected wherever I went! What did they take me for now? I decided to take a walk and inspect the country round. It annoyed me to find that the constable with his carbine thought well to take a walk too, and keep me well in view. I tried to dodge him, but he was too smart for me; and when finally to avoid him I took shelter in a wayside inn, he seated himself on the bench outside and smoked till I was ready to come out. I discovered a few more inhabitants, but it added nothing to my comfort. They, too, stared at me and followed me about, until finally I ran back to the station and cried out in my heart for the four o'clock train. About five o'clock it strolled up. I got in anywhere, without even troubling to look for Michael McCrane. If he should appear at C--, well and good, I would arrest him; if not, I would go home. For the present, at least, I would dismiss him from my mind and try to sleep. I did try, but that was all. We passed station after station. Some we halted at, as it appeared, by accident; some we went past, and then, on second thoughts, pulled up and backed into. At last, as we ran through one of these places I fancied I detected in the gloaming the name C-- painted up. "Is that C--?" I asked of a fellow-traveller. "It is so! You should have gone in the back of the train if you wanted to stop there." Missed again! I grew desperate. The train was crawling along at a foot's pace; my fellow-traveller was not a formidable one. I opened the door and jumped out on to the line. I was uninjured, and C-- was not a mile away. If I ran I might still be there to meet the back of the train and Michael McCrane. But as I began to run a grating sound behind me warned me that the train had suddenly pulled up, and a shout proclaimed that I was being pursued. Half a dozen passengers and the guard--none of them pressed for time-- joined in the hue and cry.