Page 303 - A Jacobite Exile

not light enough for them to see much of you. So I suppose I may as well
fix Friday. I will send up a message for Jack Mercer and Jerry Skinlow to

be here on Thursday evening. I will be here that afternoon, and settle
matters with them as to where they shall meet me, and what each man shall

do. Then I will ride back to town, and come out again just as it gets dark,
with Jack Ponsford."

"I suppose you will do it north of here?"

"No, I will do it a mile or two out of town. The road north of this is getting
rather a bad reputation, and in going out of Barnet the guard now looks to
his blunderbuss, and the passengers get their pistols ready. It isn't once in a

hundred times they have pluck enough to use them, but they always think
they will, until the time comes. Near town we shall take them by surprise,

and stop them before they have time to think of getting out their arms.

"Confound that window. Shove something into the hole, Johnson. I can feel

the cold right down my back."

A cloth was pushed into the broken pane, and Charlie could hear no more
of what was said inside. He had heard, indeed, enough for his purpose, but
he had hoped to gather the name of the place at which the man would put

up in London. However, he was well satisfied with his success, and at once
made his way back to the inn.

"Well, Charlie, how have you succeeded?" Harry asked, as he sat down at
the table.

"Could not be better, Harry, though I did not find out where he puts up in

London. However, that is of small consequence. In the first place, I found
out that our suspicions were right, and that the fellow is a highwayman, and
seems to be captain of a gang consisting anyhow of three, and perhaps of

more, fellows like himself. In the second place, he intends, with his three
comrades, to attack the coach on Friday week, two or three miles out of

town. Nothing could better suit our purpose, even if we had planned the
affair ourselves. Of course, we will be there. If we can capture him while