“Umph! rascals!” ejaculated Mr. Frampton. “But 'they shall both hang for it, if it costs me every farthing I possess in the world.”
“It's Mr Fleming's black mare as has been hover 'ere,” said one of the postboys, who, I afterwards learned, was a stable-helper at Barstone, and had volunteered to drive in the sudden emergency. “I knows her marks from any hother 'orse's. She's got a bar-shoe on the near fore-foot.”
“Is there nobody here to direct us?” asked I. “Let me out. Who is this miller, Peter?” I continued, as I sprang to the ground.
“Well, he's a queer one,” was the reply. “Nobody rightly knows what to make of him. He's no great good, I expects; but good or bad, we'll have him out.”
So saying, he opened the gate, and going to the cottage-door, which was closed and fastened, commenced a vigorous assault upon it. For some time his exertions appeared productive of no result, and I began to imagine the cottage was untenanted.
“We are only wasting our time to no purpose,” said I. “Let us endeavour to trace the wheel-marks, and continue our pursuit.”
“I'm certain sure there's some one in the house,” rejoined old Peter, after applying his ear to the keyhole; “I can hear 'em moving about.”
“We'll soon see,” replied I, looking round for some implement fitted for my purpose. In one corner lay a heap of wood, apparently part of an old paling. Selecting a stout post which had formed one of the uprights, I dashed it against the fastenings of the door with a degree of force which made lock and hinges rattle again. I was about to repeat the attack, when a gruff voice from within the house shouted, “Hold hard there, I'm a-coming,” and in another minute the bolts were withdrawn, and the door opened.
“What do you mean by destroying a man's property in this manner?” was the salutation with which we were accosted.
The speaker was a short thick-set man, with brawny arms, and a head unnaturally large, embellished by a profusion of red hair, and a beard of at least a week's growth. The expression of his face, surly in the extreme, would have been decidedly bad, had it not been for a look of kindness in the eye, which in some degree redeemed it!