"There's the rascal! That's him!" I heard shouted, and saw a considerable concourse of people advancing towards me, headed by a policeman, and the ragged man to whom I had tendered the coin. The presence of a policeman in that, as I had thought, lonely spot, was a better piece of fortune than I could have hoped for. "Yes, here he is," I said. "He stole my watch while I was asleep, and ran off with it. Constable, I give him in charge." The policeman had leapt the ditch which divided the wood from the road, and now came straight towards me with a look of determination on his face. "Take him!" shouted the ragged man; and, to my utter astonishment, he seized me by the collar, and said: "Now you come along with me quietly, or it will be the worse for you." I shook him off roughly. I was young and strong, and he was neither. "What are you doing?" I asked angrily. "Here's the thief! Take hold of him." The fat man turned away with a shrug of the shoulders. "I wash my hands of it," he said. "You can do what you like with him." I was so infuriated with his impudence that I made a dash for him. But the policeman was on me again, and with him several others from the crowd. In spite of my struggles I was soon overpowered. "Are you all mad?" I cried. "There's the thief! Why don't you take him? I've done nothing." They paid not the slightest attention to my protestations. The ragged man had taken no part in my capture, but stood aside, and directed the others with an air of authority. This was the more remarkable, because the greater part of them were not like the ordinary crowd that follows the police on an errand of duty, but were well-dressed, and had all the air of being well-to-do or even rich. I appealed to them. "Do give a fellow a chance," I said. "I'm on a walking-tour, and I dare say I look like a tramp. But I'm quite respectable." They cut me short by dragging me towards the road, where a smart Victoria was standing, at a point towards which other carriages were now driving. The policeman said: "You're charged with trying to force money on this gentleman; and I warn you that anything you now say will be used in evidence against you." I saw it was no use protesting further. I was either asleep and dreaming, in which case I should presently awake; or I was in the hands of a set of lunatics, and must wait until I got again into the company of sensible men. But it annoyed me to see the smug old thief retiring with all the honours of war, while I was being led off in ignominious captivity. He was actually now stepping into the Victoria, and the cockaded coachman on the box was touching his hat to him. "I warn you that you will be sorry for this," I said to my captors. "But, at any rate, take that man too. I tell you that he stole my watch, and wanted to take all my money before you came up."