The Rector needed no waking; he was walking up and down his room in
great distress. He had not undressed, but had thrown himself upon
his bed.

"What has happened, Thorndyke?" he asked as the Squire entered.
"I heard two heavy falls, and I felt that something terrible had
taken place."

"Well, it has been a serious matter--very serious. That unfortunate
son of yours is not hurt, but I don't know but that the best thing
that could have happened would have been for him to have got a
bullet through his head. He brought home with him two men who are,
I have little doubt, highwaymen; anyhow, they each had a brace of
pistols in their belt, and from what he said I think they have been
stopping a coach. At any rate, they have something with them that
they were going to hide here, and I fancy it is not the first time
that it has been done. I don't expect your son had anything to do
with the robbery, though he was carrying a brace of pistols, too;
however, we have got them all three.

"Now, you see, Bastow, this takes the affair altogether out
of our hands. I had hoped that when we caught your son in the act
of breaking into your house after you had ordered him from it, we
should be able to frighten him into enlisting, or, at any rate,
into promising to disturb you no more, for even if we had taken him
before the bench, nothing could have been done to him, for under
such circumstances his re-entering the house could not be looked
upon as an act of burglary. As it is, the affair is altogether
changed. Even if I wished to do so, as a magistrate I could not
release those two highwaymen; they must appear as prisoners in