'Behind you?' said the locksmith.

'Indeed, yes--behind me. It was a single rider, who soon overtook me,
and checking his horse, inquired the way to London.'

'You were on the alert, sir, knowing how many highwaymen there are,
scouring the roads in all directions?' said Varden.

'I was, but I had only a stick, having imprudently left my pistols
in their holster-case with the landlord's son. I directed him 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 neighhour, '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 Barnahy 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.