That was a movement by no means agreeable to Mr Muggins, who would thereby be brought into closer and more perilous contact with an ugly ill-looking elastic knotted cane, which was bending under the pressure of Mr Darnley's hand. Muggins therefore, in answer to this command, said with all the coolness he could muster: "Please, sir, I maan't stay long." "Nonsense," replied Darnley; "dismount, I tell you." Now Muggins thought that if he was destined to receive a caning for a violation of his trust, he need not add to his troubles by provoking Mr Darnley to administer an extra application to him for refusing to dismount. Down therefore came Nick, and at the word of command fastened his horse to a gate-post. "Now, Muggins," said Robert Darnley, "if you don't tell me the truth, I will cane you as long as I can stand." "Sir?" said Muggins, in a tone of well-feigned astonishment, and with the accent of interrogation. "Will you tell me the truth, sir?" repeated the interrogator. "What about, sir?" asked Muggins. That question does by no means redound to the credit of Muggins; for had he been a truly honest lad, he would have been ready to tell the truth on any subject. "What about!" echoed Darnley; "about those letters, to be sure, which you ought to have delivered at the rectory at Smatterton. Tell me what you did with them, this moment." A threatening aspect accompanied, and a threatening attitude followed this speech. Muggins gave himself up for lost. If he called out "murder," there was none to assist him; running away was an absolute impossibility; resistance would be vain; and shuffling would no longer answer the purpose. It is astonishing how powerfully present considerations overwhelm and command the mind. If Muggins could have mustered up sufficient energy of purpose to resist the threats of the son of the rector of Neverden, he might afterwards have laid his case before the Right Honorable Lord Spoonbill, by whose interest he might have gained promotion, or by whose liberality he might have been handsomely rewarded. But all other thoughts and considerations were lost and absorbed in the elastic cane, which seemed vibrating with anxious eagerness for a close acquaintance with his shoulders. Cowering and trembling, the guilty one, whose craftiness would no longer avail him, dropped abjectly upon his knees and blubberingly implored for mercy, on consideration of revealing the whole truth. Darnley, who thought more of the happiness of renewing his acquaintance with Penelope than of the pleasure of caning a graceless varlet, readily promised mercy upon confession. And so great was Nick's gratitude for the mercy promised, that he told the whole truth, and gave up the character of Lord Spoonbill to contempt. CHAPTER XVIII.