Bill answered not, but sounds were heard in his room as of one stepping out of bed, and presently the noise of flint and steel announced that a light was being struck. In a few minutes the rather jaded-looking youth appeared at the bedstead of his parent. "Bill, my dear boy," said Simon, in a more subdued voice, "did you see anybody pass last night after I came home? Try and recollect yourself; did you see two men on the road?" "I did, father; just as I had locked the stable door, and was coming in for the night, I saw two men passing down the road. But why do you ask?" "Did you speak to them--could you recognise them?" asked Simon, without stating his motive for the question. "I wished them good night; and one of them gruffly bade me good night too; but I could not make out who they were, though one did for a moment strike me to be Desborough, and both were tallish sort of men." "You're a lad of penetration, Bill; now saddle me Silvertail as fast as you can." "Saddle Silvertail! Surely, father, you are not going out yet; it's not daylight." "Saddle Silvertail, Bill," repeated the old man, with the air of one whose mandate was not to be questioned. "But where the devil are you going, sir?" he added, impatiently. "Why to saddle Silvertail, to be sure," said the youth, who was just closing the door for that purpose. "What, and leave me, a miserable old man, to get up without a light? Oh fie, Bill. I thought you loved your poor old father better than to neglect him so--there, that will do. Now send in Lucy to dress me." The light was kindled, Bill went in and spoke to his wife, then descended to the stable. A gentle tap at the door of the old interpreter, and Lucy entered in her pretty night dress, and, half asleep, half awake, but without a shadow of discontent in her look, proceeded to assist him in drawing on his stockings, &c. Simon's toilet was soon completed, and Silvertail being announced as "all ready," he, without communicating a word of his purpose, issued forth from his home just as the day was beginning to dawn.