It was quite well known, however, in Gylingden, by this time, that Captain Lake was not to see the hustings--that his spine was smashed--that he was lying on an extemporised bed, still in his clothes, in the little parlour of Redman's Farm--cursing the dead mare in gasps--railing at everybody--shuddering whenever they attempted to remove his clothes--hoping, in broken sentences, that his people would give Bracton and--good licking. Bracton's outrage was the cause of the entire thing--and so help him Heaven, so soon as he should be on his legs again, he would make him feel it, one way or other. Buddle thought he was in so highly excited a state, that his brain must have sustained some injury also. He asked Buddle about ten o'clock (having waked up from a sort of stupor)--'what about Jim Dutton?' and then, whether there was not some talk about a body they had found, and what it was. So Buddle told him all that was yet known, and he listened very attentively. 'But Larkin has been corresponding with Mark Wylder up to a very late day, and if this body has been so long buried, how the devil can it be he? And if it be as bodies usually are after such a time, how can anybody pretend to identify it? And I happen to know that Mark Wylder is living,' he added, suddenly. The doctor told him not to tire himself talking, and offered, if he wished to make a statement before a magistrate, to arrange that one should attend and receive it. 'I rather dislike it, because Mark wants to keep it quiet; but if, on public grounds, it is desirable, I will make it, of course. You'll use your discretion in mentioning the subject.' So the captain was now prepared to acknowledge the secret meeting of the night before, and to corroborate the testimony of his attorney and his butler. Stanley Lake had now no idea that his injuries were dangerous. He said he had a bad bruise under his ribs, and a sprained wrist, and was a little bit shaken; and he talked of his electioneering as only suspended for a day or two. Buddle, however, thought the case so imminent, that on his way to the 'Brandon Arms,' meeting Larkin, going, attended by his clerk, again to the vicar's house, he stopped him for a moment, and told him what had passed, adding, that Lake was so frightfully injured, that he might begin to sink at any moment, and that by next evening, at all events, he might not be in a condition to make a deposition.