"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." "Oh, Bob! if you could have delayed for a half hour, the ship would have sailed, and I should have been free!" sighed Sybil. "I did all I could to make a delay. I put laudanum in his coffee last night. I was afraid to put in too much for fear of killing him, so I suppose I didn't put in enough, for he laid wide awake all night." "Ah, yes! that would be the effect of an under-dose of laudanum."