“He will be taking to shooting and hunting before long, and if he is to have a tutor, there is no one I should like to have better than yourself. You know all the people, and we could talk comfortably together of an evening when the house is quiet. Altogether, it will be an excellent arrangement for me. You would have your own room, and if I have company you need not join us unless you like. The house would not seem like itself without you, for you have been associated with it as long as I can remember. As to your going out into the world at the age of sixty, it would be little short of madness. There--you need not give me an answer now,” he went on, seeing that the Rector was too broken down to speak; “but I am sure that when you think it over you will come to the same conclusion as I do, that it will be the best plan possible for us both.” CHAPTER IV. The trial of the two highwaymen and Arthur Bastow came off in due course. The evidence given was similar to that offered at Reigate, the only addition being that Mr. Bastow was himself put into the box. The counsel for the prosecution said: “I am sorry to have to call you, Mr. Bastow. We all feel most deeply for you, and I will ask you only two or three questions. Was your son frequently out at night?” “He was.” “Did you often hear him return?” “Yes; I seldom went to sleep until he came back.” “Had you any reason to suppose that others returned with him?” “I never saw any others.” “But you might have heard them without seeing them. Please tell us if you ever heard voices.” “Yes, I have heard men's voices,” the clergyman said reluctantly, in a low voice. “One more question, and I have done. Have you on some occasions heard the sound of horses' hoofs in your yard at about the time that your son came in?” Mr. Bastow said in a low voice: “I have.” “Had you any suspicion whatever of the character of your son's visitors?” “None whatever. I supposed that those with him were companions with whom he had been spending the evening.” Mr. Bastow had to be assisted from the witness box, so overcome was he with the ordeal. He had not glanced at his son while giving his evidence. The latter and his two fellow prisoners maintained throughout the trial their expression of indifference. The two highwaymen nodded to acquaintances they saw in the body of the court, smiled at various points in the evidence, and so conducted themselves that there were murmured exclamations of approval of their gameness on the part of the lower class of the public. The jury, without a moment's hesitation, found them all guilty of the offenses with which they were charged. Bastow was first sentenced.