“Ay! bless her!” was the old man's reply. “And she's been clever enough to drop it where they turned off here, to let us know which way they have taken her. Lucky none of 'em didn't see her a-doin' it.”
“How fortunate you observed it! And now where does this lane lead to?”
“Well, that's what puzzles me,” returned Peter, rubbing his nose with an air of perplexity. “It don't lead to anything except old Joe Hardman's mill. But they're gone down here, that's certain sure, for there was that handkerchief, and there's the mark of wheels and 'osses' feet.”
“Well, if it is certain they have gone that way,” continued I, “let us lose no time in following them. How far off is this mill?”
“About a couple of miles out of the road, sir,” replied one of the postboys.
“Get on then,” said I; “but mind you do not lose the track of their wheels. It's plain enough on the gravel of the lane.”
“All right, sir,” was the reply; and we again dashed forward.
As we got farther from the high road, the ruts became so deep that we were obliged to proceed at a more moderate pace. After skirting a thick wood for some distance, we came suddenly upon a small bleak desolate-looking common, near the centre of which stood the mill, which appeared in a somewhat dilapidated condition. A little half-ruinous cottage, probably the habitation of the miller, lay to the right of the larger building; but no signs of Carriage or horses were to be perceived, nor, indeed, anything which might indicate that the place was inhabited.
As we drew up at the gate of a farmyard, which formed the approach both to the mill and the house, Peter Barnett again got down, and having carefully examined the traces of the wheel-marks, observed, “they've been here, that I'll take my Bible oath on. The wheel-tracks go straight into the yard. But there's some fresh marks here I can't rightly make out. It looks as if a horse had galloped up to the gate and leaped hover it.”
“Wilford!” exclaimed I, as a sudden idea came into my head. “We have not got to the truth of this matter yet, depend upon it. There is some collusion between Wilford and Cumberland.”