Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1851-04-24
S SELECT TALE.
From Dickens Household Words.
The Robber Outwitted.

.I-... 4AO xeOUUC1 Out
Willie Bailie was household name about a
hundred wears ago, in the upper parts of Clydes-
dale. Men. women and children had heard OF
Willie, and the greater proportion had seen
him. Few, in his time, could excel Willie In
dexterity in his profession, which consisted OF
abstracting money from peoples pockets. and
in other predatory feats. He frequented the
fairs all round the district, and no mans purse
was safe if Willie happened to be in the market.
The beautiful village of Mofat, in Annandale,
was one of his frequent places of resort when
any of its fairs happened to be held, and here,
among the honest farmers, he was invariably
successful; and to show his professional skill,
on such occusious, he has been known to rob a
man and return his purse to him two or three
times in the same day; but this he did only to
his intimate friends, who were kind to him
in providing lodgings, when plying his nomi-
nal occupation of tinker from one farmhouse TO
another; in the of others, it was, of course,
different. His wife abetted him in all his
thieving exploits, and generally sat in place
in the outskirts of the town, that had been pre-
viously fixed on, and there received in silence
whatever spoil her husband might throw incl
dentally into her lap in the shape of her fairing
But Willie was privileged freebooter, was
generous withal, and well liked by the people
in the neighborhood, on whom he rarely
committed any acts of plunder, and any one
might have trusted him on what he called his
honor
Willie's character was we'll known to both
high and low, and he became renowned for
heroism which few who esteem responsibility
would now covet. The high estimation in
which he was held as an adept in his profess
sion, induced Scotch nobleman to lay high
! bet with an Englishman of some rank, that
Willie would actually rob and fairly despoil a
certain noted riever on the southern side of the
border, who was considered one of the most
daring and dexterous that frequented the high
ways in those dubious times, and one whose
exploits the gentleman was in the habit of ex-
tolling. The Scotch nobleman conferred with
Willie, and informed him of the project-a cir
cumstance which nightly pleased our hero,
and into which he entered with all enthusiasm
The interest which Willie took in the matter
was to the nobeman guarantee of ultimate
success; and, having given him all the marks
of the robber, and directed him TO the particu-
lar place on the road where he was sure to meet
him, he left it to Willie to arrange the subse-
quent mode of procedure.
Willie's ingenuity was instantly at work
and he concocted scheme which fairly carried
him through the enterprise. He got an old,
frail-lookng poney, partially lame, and with
long shaggy hair. He filled a bag of consider
able dimensions with great quantity of old
buttons, and useless pieces of Jingling metal
He next arrayed himself in beggarly habili-
ments. with clouted shoes, tattered under-gar-
menis, cloak mended in hundred places, and
a soiled broad-brimmed bonnet on his head
The money-bag he tied firmly behind the sad
die; he placed pair of pistols under his coat,
and a short dagger close to his side. Thus ac-
coutred, he wended his way slowly towards the
border, both he and the animal in the last stage
of helplessness and decrepitude. The bag be-
hind was carefully covered by the cloak, which
spread its duddy folds over the hinder parts of
the poor lean beast that carried him. Sitting
in crouching posture on the saddle, with a
long beard and an assumed palsied shaking of
the hand, nobody would have conceived for a
moment that Willie was man in the prime of
life, of well-built, athletic frame, with more
power in his arm than three ordinary men, and
of intrepid and adventurous spirit, that feared
nothing, but dared everything. In this plight,
our worthy went lodging over the border, and
entered the neighboring kingdom, where every
person that met him RI egarded him as a poor,
dolied, halfinsane body, fit only to lie down at
the side of hedge and die unheeded, beside
the crazy steed. In this way, he escaped with
out suspicion, and advanced without an adven-
ture to the skirts Of the wood, where he ex-
pected to encounter his professional BROTH
er.
When Willie entered the road that led
through the dark and suspicious forest, he was
all on the alert for the highwayman. Every
rustling among the trees and bushes arrested
his attention, not knowing but whizzing ball
might in a moment issue therefrom, or that the
redoubted freebooter might spring upon him
like tiger. Neither of these however, occur
rod hnt II.
ing slowly and cautiously on the road before
him. This might be he, or it might not; but
Willie now recolected every particular mark
given of the man whom he expected to encoun-
tersapd he was prepared for the most vigiIant
o. Mon As the horseman advanced Will
lie was fully convinced that he had met his man.
and this was the critical moment, for here was
the identical hishwayman. ,.5- ....-
How now, old fellow exclaimed the rob
Der; 'what seek you in these parts. Where
are you bound for, with this magnificent equi-
page of yuurs1'
Why, TO tell the truth, I'm cen a apuir hon
est man frae Scotland, gaen wee bit farther
south on business of some consequence, and I'm
glad have met with gentleman like you. and
] would fain put myself under your protection,
in this dreary wood, as am a stranger. and
wadna like any mischance to befal, considering
the errand I'm on
The ,robber eyed Willie with sort of leer,
thinking he had fallen in with an old driveling
fool, at whose expense he might amuse him