Farmer Blaize looked vacantly at Richard, as if to ask him what he thought of England's peasantry after the sample they had there. Richard would have preferred not to laugh, but his dignity gave way to his sense of the ludicrous, and he let fly a shout. The farmer was in no laughing mood. He turned a wide eye back to the door. "Lucky for'm," he exclaimed, seeing the Bantam had vanished, for his fingers itched to break that stubborn head. He grew very puffy, and addressed Richard solemnly: "Now, look ye here, Mr. Feverel! You've been a-tampering with my witness. It's no use denyin'! I say y' 'ave, sir! You, or some of ye. I don't care about no Feverel! My witness there has been bribed. The Bantam's been bribed," and he shivered his pipe with an energetic thump on the table--"bribed! I knows it! I could swear to't!"---- "Upon oath?" Richard inquired, with a grave face. "Ay, upon oath!" said the farmer, not observing the impertinence. "I'd take my Bible oath on't! He's been corrupted, my principal witness! Oh, it's dam cunnin', but it won't do the trick. I'll transpoort Tom Bakewell, sure as a gun. He shall travel, that man shall. Sorry for you, Mr. Feverel--sorry you haven't seen how to treat me proper--you, or yours. Money won't do everything--no! it won't. It'll c'rrupt a witness, but it won't clear a felon. I'd ha' 'scused you, sir! You're a boy and'll learn better. I asked no more than payment and a 'pology; and that I'd ha' taken content--always provided my witnesses weren't tampered with. Now you must stand yer luck, all o' ye." Richard stood up and replied, "Very well, Mr. Blaize." "And if," continued the farmer, "Tom Bakewell don't drag you into't after 'm, why, you're safe, as I hope ye'll be, sincere!" "It was not in consideration of my own safety that I sought this interview with you," said Richard, head erect. "Grant ye that," the farmer responded. "Grant ye that! Yer bold enough, young gentleman--comes of the blood that should be! If y' had only ha' spoke trewth!--I believe yer father--believe every word he said. I do wish I could ha' said as much for Sir Austin's son and heir." "What!" cried Richard, with an astonishment hardly to be feigned, "you have seen my father?" But Farmer Blaize had now such a scent for lies that he could detect them where they did not exist, and mumbled gruffly, "Ay, we knows all about that!" The boy's perplexity saved him from being irritated. Who could have told his father? An old fear of his father came upon him, and a touch of an old inclination to revolt. "My father knows of this?" said he, very loudly, and staring, as he spoke, right through the farmer. "Who has played me false? Who would betray me to him? It was Austin! No one knew it but Austin. Yes, and it was Austin who persuaded me to come here and submit to these indignities. Why couldn't he be open with me? I shall never trust him again!"----