Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-03-26
know whether any London passengers
arrival NV that train p

arrived by that tram
"sTwo. SIR said. the man, and
they wanted fly to come to Fairfield.
But as this was the only 'oss that Mr..
Meadows had in, they couldn't have il
till / returned. They did say, sir, as
how they would take the letter to you
themselves but the station-master, he
didn't know them, and he wouldn't hear
of it /; and curious customers they look,
sir.
MY good fellow, I replied, 6 if that
is the case, ride as slowly as you can to
Stagford the station some four miles
distant and here's half q sovereign
for you"
There was no doubt who the two pas
sengers from London were. A pretty
dilemma, in truth, was in. 1 had
probably about an hour yet before me,
and at the expiration of that time, so
far as / could see, must be inevitably
arrested, and that in my uncle's house,
and taken back to London to spend my
Twelfth night in the charming vicinity
of Cursitor street. / walked into the
passage and upstairs in 10 my room.
There Spriggs was unpacking my port
manteau.
every glad to see you here, sir,
again, was his greeting, and to know
that all is right between master and
yourself And master said / was to
come to his study in couple of hours,
as he wanted to send to you or see you
Il forget which, sir.
SIN couple of hours Why, in that
time 1 should be-Heaven only knows
where. suppose my countenance be-
trayed signs of distress, for Spriggs
asked me whether was unwell
THE truth is, my good Spriggs, I
said, am In duce of q mess ; and
plunging in medals res, told him the
whole complication.
"Spriggs listened attentively, and
gave me his opinion that matters
were very serious indeed. Would it be
impossible, he asked, to square these
emissaries of the law, or at least to in
duce them to wait at Stagford till next
morning? Quite, I told him. It was
not quarter to five, and at best there
were only twenty minutes to spare. 1t
is no exaggeration to say that on the tao
tics which / adopted In that brief inter
val entirely depended my future chances,
so far as my uncle's will was concerned
Anything like an arrest for debt, and
that under his own rooftree, Spriggs
agreed with me in the thinking that
Mr.. Gridling would not tolerate for a
moment, and would effectually ruin me
with him. Spriggs medltated for some
minutes, and at last he spoke.
Mr.. Kennedy he said, sir, you
have always been a good friend to me.
You say that, to the best of your belief,
these bailiff fellers don't know you by
Sight, sir, but that You fancy some one
did watch you as you were leaving
Charing Cross this morning. That was
no doubt man sent to identify you
some understrapper who would describe
your appearance to the pair who have
come to Stagford. q wondered what
was coming) Now, sir, you and 1 are
about the same height, and figure you
shall lend me that light greatcoat which
you wore this morning sir, and for the
next twenty-four hours L will be Robert
Kennedy, Esq.
"I asked Spriggs to explain himself
still further.
What / mean is this, sir. / will
walk down the drive to the lodge gate,
and wait till the fly with this lot comes
They will see me stop. Mr.. Kennedy
they will say. we want a word with
you ; and eff we shall go to London.
The mistake won't De found out till we
are twenty-five miles off, and then there
will be 70 more trains tonight. My
belief, sir, is that the letter which
you will receive from master In an
hours time will make you able to settle
this little matter a good many times
over the first thing tomorrow morn
ing
cit was sufficiently startling pro-
posal. / did not know what to say to
it, but there was no time to hesitate.
In five minutes had accepted Sprigg's
as Bob Kennedy. For some little
while / sat meditating matters. I took
out my watch ; it was twenty minutes
past five. By this time Spriggs must
have come up with my pursuers. re-
fected again again I took out my
watch. 1t was now close ON six, and by
this time Spriggs must have been on the
point of entering the railway carriage
of the last train to town, unless, indeed,
by some accident the stratagem had
been discovered, and the officers of the
Middlesex Sheriff were again on their
road to Fairfield. In the midst of these
meditations 1 was interrupted by
knock at my door. My worthy uncle
entered, with letter in his hand.
Robert, he said, 1 did not know
you were here, and had intended to
leave this on your dressing-table. 1
told Spriggs to take it, but l can't find
him. L suppose he has gone out.
There, my boy, open it presently And
go saying, my uncle departed.
"The envelope contained check for
s500.
GAS for the confusion which Spriggs'
unexpected absence created in my
uncle's household, / will say nothing of
it. We had cornwall evening enough.
but own rather expected the door to
open every moment, and some myrmi-
don of the law to lay his hand upon my
shoulder, informing me that Spriggs
had been arrested by mistake. Let me
y,ooe ovor tbis Rv EIGHT O'CLOCK newt