into a coach, there was no harm in their hiring two inside
places. I gave my watch, rings, and last guinea to Alicia,

enjoining her, on no account, to let her box of jewels see the
light until we could get proper advice on the best means of

turning them to account. She listened to these and other
directions with a calmness that astonished me.

"You shan't say, my dear, that your wife has helped to make you
uneasy by so much as a word or a look," she whispered to me as we

left the inn.
And she kept the hard promise implied in that one short sentence

throughout the journey. Once only did I see her lose her
self-possession. At starting on our way south, Mrs. Baggs--taking

the same incomprehensible personal offense at my misfortune which
she had previously taken at the doctor's--upbraided me with my

want of confidence in her, and declared that it was the main
cause of all my present trouble. Alicia turned on her as she was

uttering the words, with a look and a warning that silenced her
in an instant:

"If you say another syllable that isn't kind to him, you shall
find your way back by yourself!"

The words may not seem of much importance to others; but I
thought, as I overheard them, that they justified every sacrifice

I had made for my wife's sake.
CHAPTER XVI.

ON our way back I received from the runner some explanation of
his apparently unaccountable proceedings in reference to myself.

To begin at the beginning, it turned out that the first act of
the officers, on their release from the workroom in the red-brick

house, was to institute a careful search for papers in the
doctor's study and bedroom. Among the other documents that he had

not had time to destroy, was a letter to him from Alicia, which
they took from one of the pockets of his dressing-gown. Finding,

from the report of the men who had followed the gig, that he had
distanced all pursuit, and having therefore no direct clew to his

whereabout, they had been obliged to hunt after him in various
directions, on pure speculation. Alicia's letter to her father

gave the address of the house at Crickgelly; and to this the
runner repaired, on the chance of intercepting or discovering any

communications which the doctor might make to his daughter, Screw
being taken with the officer to identify the young lady. After

leaving the last coach, they posted to within a mile of
Crickgelly, and then walked into the village, in order to excite

no special attention, should the doctor be lurking in the
neighborhood. The runner had tried ineffectually to gain

admission as a visitor at Zion Place. After having the door shut
on him, he and Screw had watched the house and village, and had

seen me approach Number Two. Their suspicions were directly
excited.

Thus far, Screw had not recognized, nor even observed me; but he
immediately identified me by my voice, while I was parleying with

the stupid servant at the door. The runner, hearing who I was,
reasonably enough concluded that I must be the recognized medium

of communication between the doctor and his daughter, especially
when he found that I was admitted, instantly after calling, past

the servant, to some one inside the house.
Leaving Screw on the watch, he went to the inn, discovered

himself privately to the landlord, and made sure (in more ways
than one, as I conjectured) of knowing when, and in what

direction, I should leave Crickgelly. On finding that I was to
leave it the next morning, with Alicia and Mrs. Baggs, he

immediately suspected that I was charged with the duty of taking
the daughter to, or near, the place chosen for the father's

retreat; and had therefore abstained from interfering prematurely
with my movements. Knowing whither we were bound in the cart, he

had ridden after us, well out of sight, with his countryman's
disguise ready for use in the saddle-bags-- Screw, in case of any

mistakes or mystifications, being left behind on the watch at
Crickgelly.

The possibility that I might be running away with Alicia had
suggested itself to him; but he dismissed it as improbable, first

when he saw that Mrs. Baggs accompanied us, and again, when, on
nearing Scotland, he found that we did not take the road to

Gretna Green. He acknowledged, in conclusion, that he should have
followed us to Edinburgh, or even to the Continent itself, on the

chance of our leading him to the doctor's retreat, but for the
servant girl at the inn, who had listened outside the door while

our brief marriage ceremony was proceeding, and from whom, with
great trouble and delay, he had extracted all the information he

required. A further loss of half an hour's time had occurred
while he was getting the necessary help to assist him, in the

event of my resisting, or trying to give him the slip, in making
me a prisoner. These small facts accounted for the hour's respite

we had enjoyed at the inn, and terminated the runner's narrative
of his own proceedings.

On arriving at our destination I was, of course, immediately
taken to the jail.

Alicia, by my advice, engaged a modestlodging in a suburb of
Barkingham. In the days of the red-brick house, she had seldom

been seen in the town, and she was not at all known by sight in
the suburb. We arranged that she was to visit me as often as the

authorities would let her. She had no companion, and wanted none.
Mrs. Baggs, who had never forgiven the rebuke administered to her

at the starting-point of our journey, left us at the close of it.
Her leave-taking was dignified and pathetic. She kindly informed

Alicia that she wished her well, though she could not
conscientiously look upon her as a lawful married woman; and she

begged me (in case I got off), the next time I met with a
respectable person who was kind to me, to profit by remembering

my past errors, and to treat my next benefactress with more
confidence than I had treated her.

My first business in the prison was to write to Mr. Batterbury.
I had a magnificent ease to present to him, this time. Although I

believed myself, and had succeeded in persuading Alicia, that I
was sure of being recommended to mercy, it was not the less the

fact that I was charged with an offense still punishable by
death, in the then barbarous state of the law. I delicately

stated just enough of my case to make one thing clear to the mind
of Mr. Batterbury. My affectionate sister's interest in the

contingent reversion was now ( unless Lady Malkinshaw perversely
and suddenly expired) actually threatened by the Gallows!

While calmly awaiting the answer, I was by no means without
subjects to occupy my attention when Alicia was not at the

prison. There was my fellow-workman--Mill--(the first member of
our society betrayed by Screw) to compare notes with; and there

was a certain prisoner who had been transported, and who had some
very important and interesting particulars to communicate,

relative to life and its chances in our felon-settlements at the
Antipodes. I talked a great deal with this man; for I felt that

his experience might be of the greatest possible benefit to me.
Mr. Batterbury's answer was speedy, short, and punctual. I had

shattered his nervoussystem forever, he wrote, but had only
stimulated his devotion to my family, and his Christian readiness

to look pityingly on my transgressions. He had engaged the leader
of the circuit to defend me; and he would have come to see me,

but for Mrs. Batterbury; who had implored him not to expose
himself to agitation. Of Lady Malkinshaw the letter said nothing;

but I afterward discovered that she was then at Cheltenham,
drinking the waters and playing whist in the rudest health and

spirits.
It is a bold thing to say, but nothing will ever persuade me that

Society has not a sneaking kindness for a Rogue.
For example, my father never had half the attention shown to him

in his own house, which was shown to me in my prison. I have seen
High Sheriffs in the great world, whom my father went to see,

give him two fingers--the High Sheriff of Barkinghamshire came to
see me, and shook hands cordially. Nobody ever wanted my father's