after the creature had slunk away out of the room—­ to have a laugh with the captain, who very heartily offered him a glass of grog upon the top of it; and with that it came over him how he was deceiving this good man.  He couldn’t accept the drink; he could scarcely muster up face to say “Good-night, sir, and thank you,” and if he, too, as he went out, didn’t carry his tail between his legs, I doubt if he felt much better satisfied with himself than did Mr Nathan.

’But just outside the gate he found something to distract his mind.  The soldiers, in a rage at being made to look foolish, had been waiting there for Mr Nathan with their belts; and my grandfather arrived in time to hear the wretched man howling for mercy, as they chevied him away over the moor under the lee of North Hessary and into the dusk.

’He stood and listened for a minute or so, but by-and-by there was an end of the yells, and the soldiers came strolling back, laughing together, as men who had taken a pleasant little revenge but not pushed it too far.  So he turned his face for home, and reached it a little after nightfall; and there he turned out his pocket in front of my grandmother, who could not believe a word of the tale until she had handled each guinea separately.  Then she, too, flung her apron over her head, and laughed till she was weak.  But my grandfather wanted to know if by rights he oughtn’t to share the money with the prisoner.

’My grandmother couldn’t make up her mind about this, and advised him to sleep on it.  The young man (she said) had faithfully kept his bed all day, but was growing resty.  So my grandfather, before supping, took a light and went upstairs to the garret.

’"We’ve kept the scent wide to-day,” he reported, very cheerful-like.  “But you’ll have to lie still for a while yet.”

‘"Lyin’ here puts a strain on a man,” the lad grumbled.  “Couldn’t I take a turn in the fields, now that dark has fallen?  I’d promise not to stray far from the house.”

’"That’s a notion,” my grandfather agreed.  “I once had to lie in bed two days with a quinsy, and I hated it.”  He considered for a while, and could see no objection.  “Come down and sup with us,” he said; “and afterwards, if the missus agrees, you can take a stroll.  But don’t make too much noise when you let yourself in again.”

’Well, so it was fixed; and after supper the lad put on a pair of high-lows my grandfather lent him, and started off for a ramble in the night air, with a plenty of instructions about the safest paths.  At nine o’clock, which was their regular hour, my grandfather and grandmother made out the light and went to bed, leaving the door on the latch.  It was an hour before my grandfather could get to sleep.  He was thinking of the five guineas, and how they ought rightfully to be divided.

’At five in the morning his wife woke him, and declared that in her belief the lad was still abroad.  If he had returned and gone to his garret she must have heard; but she had heard nothing.  She harped on this till my grandfather climbed out and went to the garret for a look; and sure enough the bed was empty.