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Thus aroused, the men prepared to give chase. The evidence was, indeed,though circumstantial, so convincing, that but little argument was neededto show the shepherd's guests that after what they had seen it would lookvery much like connivance if they did not instantly pursue the unhappythird stranger, who could not as yet have gone more than a few hundredyards over such uneven country.

A shepherd is always well provided with lanterns; and, lighting thesehastily, and with hurdle-staves in their hands, they poured out of thedoor, taking a direction along the crest of the hill, away from the town,the rain having fortunately a little abated.

Disturbed by the noise, or possibly by unpleasant dreams of her baptism,the child who had been christened began to cry heart-brokenly in the roomoverhead. These notes of grief came down through the chinks of the floorto the ears of the women below, who jumped up one by one, and seemed gladof the excuse to ascend and comfort the baby, for the incidents of thelast half-hour greatly oppressed them. Thus in the space of two or threeminutes the room on the ground-floor was deserted quite.

But it was not for long. Hardly had the sound of footsteps died awaywhen a man returned round the corner of the house from the direction thepursuers had taken. Peeping in at the door, and seeing nobody there, heentered leisurely. It was the stranger of the chimney-corner, who hadgone out with the rest. The motive of his return was shown by hishelping himself to a cut piece of skimmer-cake that lay on a ledge besidewhere he had sat, and which he had apparently forgotten to take with him.He also poured out half a cup more mead from the quantity that remained,ravenously eating and drinking these as he stood. He had not finishedwhen another figure came in just as quietly--his friend in cinder-gray.

'O--you here?' said the latter, smiling. 'I thought you had gone to helpin the capture.' And this speaker also revealed the object of his returnby looking solicitously round for the fascinating mug of old mead.

'And I thought you had gone,' said the other, continuing his skimmer-cakewith some effort.

'Well, on second thoughts, I felt there were enough without me,' said thefirst confidentially, 'and such a night as it is, too. Besides, 'tis thebusiness o' the Government to take care of its criminals--not mine.'

'True; so it is. And I felt as you did, that there were enough withoutme.'

'I don't want to break my limbs running over the humps and hollows ofthis wild country.'

'Nor I neither, between you and me.'

'These shepherd-people are used to it--simple-minded souls, you know,stirred up to anything in a moment. They'll have him ready for me beforethe morning, and no trouble to me at all.'

'They'll have him, and we shall have saved ourselves all labour in thematter.'

'True, true. Well, my way is to Casterbridge; and 'tis as much as mylegs will do to take me that far. Going the same way?'

'No, I am sorry to say! I have to get home over there' (he noddedindefinitely to the right), 'and I feel as you do, that it is quiteenough for my legs to do before bedtime.'

The other had by this time finished the mead in the mug, after which,shaking hands heartily at the door, and wishing each other well, theywent their several ways.

In the meantime the company of pursuers had reached the end of the hog's-back elevation which dominated this part of the down. They had decidedon no particular plan of action; and, finding that the man of the balefultrade was no longer in their company, they seemed quite unable to formany such plan now. They descended in all directions down the hill, andstraightway several of the party fell into the snare set by Nature forall misguided midnight ramblers over this part of the cretaceousformation. The 'lanchets,' or flint slopes, which belted the escarpmentat intervals of a dozen yards, took the less cautious ones unawares, andlosing their footing on the rubbly steep they slid sharply downwards, thelanterns rolling from their hands to the bottom, and there lying on theirsides till the horn was scorched through.

When they had again gathered themselves together, the shepherd, as theman who knew the country best, took the lead, and guided them round thesetreacherous inclines. The lanterns, which seemed rather to dazzle theireyes and warn the fugitive than to assist them in the exploration, wereextinguished, due silence was observed; and in this more rational orderthey plunged into the vale. It was a grassy, briery, moist defile,affording some shelter to any person who had sought it; but the partyperambulated it in vain, and ascended on the other side. Here theywandered apart, and after an interval closed together again to reportprogress.

At the second time of closing in they found themselves near a lonely ash,the single tree on this part of the coomb, probably sown there by apassing bird some fifty years before. And here, standing a little to oneside of the trunk, as motionless as the trunk itself; appeared the manthey were in quest of; his outline being well defined against the skybeyond. The band noiselessly drew up and faced him.

'Your money or your life!' said the constable sternly to the stillfigure.

'No, no,' whispered John Pitcher. ''Tisn't our side ought to say that.That's the doctrine of vagabonds like him, and we be on the side of thelaw.'

'Well, well,' replied the constable impatiently; 'I must say something,mustn't I? and if you had all the weight o' this undertaking upon yourmind, perhaps you'd say the wrong thing too!--Prisoner at the bar,surrender, in the name of the Father--the Crown, I mane!'

The man under the tree seemed now to notice them for the first time, and,giving them no opportunity whatever for exhibiting their courage, hestrolled slowly towards them. He was, indeed, the little man, the thirdstranger; but his trepidation had in a great measure gone.

'Well, travellers,' he said, 'did I hear ye speak to me?'

'You did: you've got to come and be our prisoner at once!' said theconstable. 'We arrest 'ee on the charge of not biding in Casterbridgejail in a decent proper manner to be hung to-morrow morning. Neighbours,do your duty, and seize the culpet!'

On hearing the charge, the man seemed enlightened, and, saying notanother word, resigned himself with preternatural civility to the search-party, who, with their staves in their hands, surrounded him on allsides, and marched him back towards the shepherd's cottage.

It was eleven o'clock by the time they arrived. The light shining fromthe open door, a sound of men's voices within, proclaimed to them as theyapproached the house that some new events had arisen in their absence. Onentering they discovered the shepherd's living room to be invaded by twoofficers from Casterbridge jail, and a well-known magistrate who lived atthe nearest country-seat, intelligence of the escape having becomegenerally circulated.

'Gentlemen,' said the constable, 'I have brought back your man--notwithout risk and danger; but every one must do his duty! He is insidethis circle of able-bodied persons, who have lent me useful aid,considering their ignorance of Crown work. Men, bring forward yourprisoner!' And the third stranger was led to the light.

'Who is this?' said one of the officials.

'The man,' said the constable.

'Certainly not,' said the turnkey; and the first corroborated hisstatement.

'But how can it be otherwise?' asked the constable. 'Or why was he soterrified at sight o' the singing instrument of the law who sat there?'Here he related the strange behaviour of the third stranger on enteringthe house during the hangman's song.

'Can't understand it,' said the officer coolly. 'All I know is that itis not the condemned man. He's quite a different character from thisone; a gauntish fellow, with dark hair and eyes, rather good-looking, andwith a musical bass voice that if you heard it once you'd never mistakeas long as you lived.'

'Why, souls--'twas the man in the chimney-corner!'

'Hey--what?' said the magistrate, coming forward after inquiringparticulars from the shepherd in the background. 'Haven't you got theman after all?'

'Well, sir,' said the constable, 'he's the man we were in search of,that's true; and yet he's not the man we were in search of. For the manwe were in search of was not the man we wanted, sir, if you understand myeveryday way; for 'twas the man in the chimney-corner!'

'A pretty kettle of fish altogether!' said the magistrate. 'You hadbetter start for the other man at once.'

The prisoner now spoke for the first time. The mention of the man in thechimney-corner seemed to have moved him as nothing else could do. 'Sir,'he said, stepping forward to the magistrate, 'take no more trouble aboutme. The time is come when I may as well speak. I have done nothing; mycrime is that the condemned man is my brother. Early this afternoon Ileft home at Shottsford to tramp it all the way to Casterbridge jail tobid him farewell. I was benighted, and called here to rest and ask theway. When I opened the door I saw before me the very man, my brother,that I thought to see in the condemned cell at Casterbridge. He was inthis chimney-corner; and jammed close to him, so that he could not havegot out if he had tried, was the executioner who'd come to take his life,singing a song about it and not knowing that it was his victim who wasclose by, joining in to save appearances. My brother looked a glance ofagony at me, and I knew he meant, "Don't reveal what you see; my lifedepends on it." I was so terror-struck that I could hardly stand, and,not knowing what I did, I turned and hurried away.'

The narrator's manner and tone had the stamp of truth, and his story madea great impression on all around. 'And do you know where your brother isat the present time?' asked the magistrate.

'I do not. I have never seen him since I closed this door.'

'I can testify to that, for we've been between ye ever since,' said theconstable.

'Where does he think to fly to?--what is his occupation?'

'He's a watch-and-clock-maker, sir.'

''A said 'a was a wheelwright--a wicked rogue,' said the constable.

'The wheels of clocks and watches he meant, no doubt,' said ShepherdFennel. 'I thought his hands were palish for's trade.'

'Well, it appears to me that nothing can be gained by retaining this poorman in custody,' said the magistrate; 'your business lies with the other,unquestionably.'

And so the little man was released off-hand; but he looked nothing theless sad on that account, it being beyond the power of magistrate orconstable to raze out the written troubles in his brain, for theyconcerned another whom he regarded with more solicitude than himself.When this was done, and the man had gone his way, the night was found tobe so far advanced that it was deemed useless to renew the search beforethe next morning.

Next day, accordingly, the quest for the clever sheep-stealer becamegeneral and keen, to all appearance at least. But the intendedpunishment was cruelly disproportioned to the transgression, and thesympathy of a great many country-folk in that district was strongly onthe side of the fugitive. Moreover, his marvellous coolness and daringin hob-and-nobbing with the hangman, under the unprecedentedcircumstances of the shepherd's party, won their admiration. So that itmay be questioned if all those who ostensibly made themselves so busy inexploring woods and fields and lanes were quite so thorough when it cameto the private examination of their own lofts and outhouses. Storieswere afloat of a mysterious figure being occasionally seen in some oldovergrown trackway or other, remote from turnpike roads; but when asearch was instituted in any of these suspected quarters nobody wasfound. Thus the days and weeks passed without tidings.

In brief; the bass-voiced man of the chimney-corner was never recaptured.Some said that he went across the sea, others that he did not, but buriedhimself in the depths of a populous city. At any rate, the gentleman incinder-gray never did his morning's work at Casterbridge, nor metanywhere at all, for business purposes, the genial comrade with whom hehad passed an hour of relaxation in the lonely house on the coomb.

The grass has long been green on the graves of Shepherd Fennel and hisfrugal wife; the guests who made up the christening party have mainlyfollowed their entertainers to the tomb; the baby in whose honour theyall had met is a matron in the sere and yellow leaf. But the arrival ofthe three strangers at the shepherd's that night, and the detailsconnected therewith, is a story as well known as ever in the countryabout Higher Crowstairs.

March 1883.