"How much further is it to G. this way than it is by the direct road?"
"Wal, 'bout four mild."
Upon this, I was about starting, when he called out, "I say, mister, don't you want to trade hosses? I——"
"What yer beout there, Jerry," exclaimed a shrill voice from the house, which could be no other than that of the redoubtable "She"—"not a stick of wood in the house, and you a loafin there on the fence. I tell you——"
Her further remonstrances were lost to me, but I doubt not that the luckless Jerry received a suitable reprimand for his delinquency.
Here I was then, having four miles further to go than the stage, and my horse beginning to show unequivocal signs of fatigue. As the stage driver knew nothing of our plan, the probability was that he would pass the next office long before I could arrive and examine the mail bag. In this emergency. I could think of nothing better than to leave horse and carriage at some place on the road, and obtain a saddle-horse, with which I might succeed in "coming to time." And after turning at the "brick house with four chimblys," I was gladdened by the sight of a tavern some half a mile beyond, to which I hastened with all practicable speed, and lost no time in inquiring whether I could obtain a substitute for my overdriven animal.
The landlord was prompt in answering my demand, and forthwith ordered his hostler to put the saddle upon "Bob." While Bob was being "got up," I found myself the object of many inquisitive looks from the assemblage of tavern loungers, to whom my arrival was a rather unusual windfall; for it was not every day that the intervals between drams were enlivened by such a comet-like approach. The team wagons and other vehicles which frequented the road, and whose motions were as methodical as those of the planets—the tavern being the sun of their system—produced no emotions in the minds of these idlers, like the unexpected appearance of an unknown body like myself, coming no one knew whence, and going no one could tell where. One of two alternatives seemed forced on them by the "hot haste" of my movements. The stranger was either a pursuer or the pursued. If he was the latter, what had he been doing? And if the former, of what had somebody else been guilty? These perplexing questions were settled in a manner apparently satisfactory to them, by the inquiry which I made of the landlord, whether he had seen a man pass that way on horseback, leading another horse, which I described minutely. The anxious audience at once jumped at the conclusion, as I had intended they should, that I was in pursuit of a horse-thief, which impression I took care to strengthen by sundry incidental remarks. It seemed necessary by some such device to prevent all suspicion of my real character and object, in order that if I failed in executing my design this day, the case might stand as well as before.
By this time "Bob" had been saddled and bridled, and issued forth from the stable, equipped for action, under the auspices of the hostler. He (to wit, Bob,) was a stout Canadian pony, rejoicing in a peculiarly shaggy mane, and a tail which was well calculated to add completeness to my comet-like character. He was strong of limb, and evidently quite as competent as any quadruped that could ordinarily be found, to carry me to my destination within the required time.
As soon as I was fairly in the saddle, some one among the small crowd assembled to witness my departure, gave a slight whistle and made a sound something like "he up," whereat the treacherous Bob went through a series of gymnastic performances highly gratifying to the select audience in front of the tavern, and occasioning a display on my part, of equestrian accomplishments which I was never before conscious of possessing. The pony elevated himself upon his hind legs so as to assume an almost perpendicular posture, giving me much the attitude of Napoleon as he is represented in David's well-known picture, "only more so." After standing thus for an instant, he commenced a rotary movement, still upon two legs,