"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."