The warder and his party returned, and the caravan went jolting on its way.
Hardly had the pursuers disappeared in the mist, when Mrs. Jarvis’s attention was attracted to the baggage-waggon in the rear. The tarpaulin flung over it was moving.
This waggon was unoccupied, the horse following mechanically the vehicles ahead of him.
Mr. Jarvis, attracted by his wife’s exclamation, looked, and he too distinctly saw the tarpaulin move.
He stood still in the roadway till the horse came up to him, and stopped it.
As he did so he distinctly heard a low groan.
‘Now then, governor!’ he exclaimed, ‘whoever you are, come out o’ that.’
No answer, only a groan deeper than before.
The two living-vans had turned a sharp corner of the road by this time, and there was no one in sight.
Mr. Jarvis climbed up on to the waggon and pulled the tarpaulin back.