Tom understood him in a moment.  He took the whip, and the next moment it had whistled through the air, and caught the bully a stinging lash right across the face.  At the sound of the crack of the lash the horses started forward, and in a moment the carriage was spinning away over the dusty road, followed by roars of laughter from Lord Claud’s friends, and by roars of a different character from the indignant and outraged bully.

“You will have to shoot those fellows one of these days,” remarked Lord Claud coolly.  “They are becoming a nuisance.  Men who are a nuisance ought to be put out of the way.  London would be well rid of them.”

“They have been mine enemies from the very outset,” said Tom, “from the day when first we met, and you came to my rescue when they were baiting me.  They have owed me a grudge ever since; but hitherto I have had the best of our encounters.”

“Drunken sots have no chance against sober fellows with thews and sinews like yours, good Tom; yet they can give trouble in other ways, and are better under ground than above it.  I marvel they have all escaped so long; for they are well known for a set of ruffianly vagabonds, and well deserve the hangman’s noose.”

The carriage spun fast over the ground, and the westering sun threw long shadows over their path as they rolled farther and farther through the country lanes, leaving the racket of the streets far behind.  The country was familiar to Tom, who had ridden over the same ground early in the year; but how different it all looked in the vivid green of early summer, instead of draped in a mantle of frost and snow!

He felt a little elation of spirit as they drove through the old town, the observed of all observers.  Some friends of his own hailed him with eager nods of recognition, looking with a great admiration and respect at himself and his companion.  Tom felt his heart swell with pride, knowing that in time it would reach Gablethorpe how he had been seen sitting in such state.  He returned the salutations of old friends with easy good nature, but felt as though he belonged now to a quite different world; and his heart swelled with that sort of pride which is apt to be the forerunner of a disastrous fall.

They did not stop at St. Albans itself, but at a hostelry a little to the north of it, standing by itself in a pleasant leafy lane.  Lord Claud appeared known to mine host, who made them welcome to the best his house had at disposal; and promised all care for the horses, which, as Lord Claud explained, had to make the return journey upon the third day.

It was now somewhat late, so the travellers took their supper, and then went to bed; Tom still in a state of subdued excitement and expectation, scenting coming adventure, but as yet only very imperfectly acquainted with the nature of it.  He had suspicions of his own, which caused him alternations of dread and excitement; but he knew he should be told all in Lord Claud’s time, and in the meanwhile silence was the best policy.