Vol.1 f.075 recto

as he desired. Before the words had passed my lips, he rode upon me furiously, as if bent on trampling me down beneath his horse's hoofs. In starting aside, I slipped and fell. You found me with this stab and an ugly bruise or two, and without my purse -- in which he found little enough for his pains. And now, Mr Varden,' he added, shaking the locksmith by the hand, " saving the extent of my gratitude to you, you know as much as I."
"Except,' said Gabriel, bending down yet more, and looking cautiously towards their silent neighbour, " except in respect of the robber himself. What like was he, sir,? Speak low, if you please. Barnaby means no harm, but I have watched him oftener than you, and I know, little as you would think it, that he's listening now.'
It required a strong confidence in the locksmith's veracity to lead any one to this belief, for every sense and faculty that Barnaby possessed, seemed to be fixed upon his game, to the exclusion of all other things. Something in the young man's face expressed this opinion, for Gabriel repeated what he had just said, more earnestly than before, and with another glance towards Barnaby, again asked what like the man was.
"The night was so dark,' said Edward, "the attack so sudden, and he so wrapped and muffled up, that I can hardly say. It seems that -'
" Don't mention his name, sir,' returned the locksmith, following his look towards Barnaby; " I know [1he]1 saw him. I want to know what [1you]1 saw."
"All I remember is,' said Edward, " that as he checked his horse his hat was blown off. He caught it, and replaced it on his head, which I observed was bound with a dark handkerchief. A stranger entered the Maypole while I was there, whom I had not seen[dash]for I had sat apart for reasons of my own -- and when I rose to leave the room and glanced round, he was in the shadow of the chimney and hidden from my sight. But, if he and the robber were two different persons, their voices were strangely and most remarkably alike; for directly the man addressed me in the road, I recognised his speech again.'
"It is as I feared. The very man was here to-night,' thought the locksmith,