“Be sure of that,” I said grimly. “So have beds ready to-night for all our company.” “All thy—! Dear sir, consider: where are beds to be found? Sure, thy mariners can pass the night aboard their own ship?” “So then,” thought I, “you have been on the lookout;” but Delia replied for me— “I am Delia Killigrew, and mistress of this house. You will prepare the beds as you are told.” Whereupon what does that decrepit old sinner but drop upon his knees? “Mistress Delia! O goodly feast for this one poor eye! Oh, that Master Tingcomb had seen this day!” I declare the tears were running down his nose; but Delia march’d out, cutting short his hypocrisy. In the passage she whisper’d— “Villainy, Jack!” “Hush!” I answered, “and listen: _Master Tingcomb is no more in that coffin than I._” “Then where is he?” “That is just what we are to discover.” As I said this a light broke on me. “By the Lord,” I cried, “’tis the very same!” Delia open’d her eyes wide. “Wait,” I said: “I begin to touch ground.” We returned to the great hall. The straight-hair’d man was still eating, and opposite sat Billy, that had not budg’d, but now beckoning to me, very mysterious, whisper’d in a voice that made the plates rattle— “That’s—a damned—rogue!” ’Twas discomposing, but the truth. In fact, I had just solv’d a puzzle. This holy-speaking minister was no other than the groom I had seen at Bodmin Fair holding Master Tingcomb’s horses. By this, the sun was down, and Delia soon made an excuse to withdraw to her own room. Nor was it long before the rest followed her example. I found our chambers prepared, near together, in a wing of the house at some distance from the hall. Delia’s was next to mine, as I made sure by knocking at her door: and on the other side of me slept Billy with two of his crew. My own bed was in a great room sparely furnish’d; and the linen indifferent white. There was a plenty of clean straw, tho’, on the floor, had I intended to sleep—which I did not. Instead, having blown out my light, I sat on the bed’s edge, listening to the big clock over the hall as it chim’d the quarters, and waiting till the fellows below should be at their ease. That Master Tingcomb rested under the coffin lid, I did not believe, in spite of the terrifying fit that I could vouch for. But this, if driven to it, we could discover at the grave. The main business was to catch him; and to this end I meant to patrol the buildings, and especially watch the entrance, on the likely chance of his creeping back to the house (if not already inside), to confer with his fellow-rascals.