Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-03-17
CHAPTER VII.
A Tragi-Comedy in a Cab.

counted III SOOu fortune, Tor the Time
was long to him till he should have
done forever with the Lodge; and the
further he must go to find cab, the
greater the chance that the inevitable
discovery had taken place, and that
he SHOULD return to find the garden
full Of angry neighbors. Yet when
the vehicle drew up he was sensibly
chagrined to recognize the port-wine
cabman of the night before. "Here,"
he could not but reflect, 'here is an
other link in the Judicial Error"
The driver, on the other hand, was
pleased to drop again upon so LIBERAL
fare; and as he was a mantle
reader must already have perceived
OF easy, not to say familiar manners,
he dropped at once into a vein of
friendly talk, commenting on the
weather, on the sacred season, which
struclA him chiefly in the light of a
day of1iberal gratuities, on the chance
which had reunited him to a pleasing
customer, and on the fact that John
had been Gas he was pleased to call it)
visibly "on the randan" the night be-
fore.
The jarvey was finally prevailed
upon to Chamber to his place and drive,
with hideous elaboration, to the door
of the Lodge. There were no signs as
yet Of any public emotion; only, two
men stood not far off in talk, and their
presence, seen from afar. set Johns
pulses buzzing. He might have spared
himself his fright, for the pair were
lost in some dispute of theological
complexion, and with heightened up
per lip and enumerating fingers, pur-
sued the matter of their difference
and paid no heed to John.
But the cabman proved thorn in
the flesh. Nothing would keep him
on his perch; he must Chamber down,
comment upon the pebble in the door
(Which he regarded as an ingenious
but unsafe device), help John with
the portmanteau, and enliven matters
with flow of speech, and especially
of questions, which / thus condense:
Hell be here himself, will he?
No? "Well he's an eccentric man
of fair oddity-if ken the expression.
Great trouble with his tenants, they
| tell ne. I've driven the family for
years. I drove cab at his fathers
weddin'. What'll your name beP-I
should ken your face. Baigrey, We
say? There were Baigreys about Gil
merton; ye'll he one of that lot? Then
this'll be friends portmantie, like?
Whye Because the name upon it's
nicholson! Oh, If ye're in a hurry,
that's another job. Waver Brig ?
Are We far awayP"
So the friendly topper prated and
questioned and kept Johns heart in a
evils under the sun, there came pc
riod; and the victim of circumstances
began at last to rumble toward the
railway terminus at Waverly bridge.
During the transit, he sat with raised
glasses in the frosty chill and mouldy
fetor of his chariot, and glanced out
sidelong on the holiday face of things,
the suffered shops, and the crowds
along the pavement, much as the rider
in the Tyburn cart may have observed
the concourse gathering 20 his eXecu-
ton.
At the station his spirits rose again
another stage of his escape was for
tunately ended-he began to spy blue
water. He called a railway porter,
and babe him carry the portmanteau
to the cloak room; not that he had
any notion of delay; flight, instant
flight, was his design, no matter
whittier; but he had determined tC
dismiss the cabman ere he named, OF
even chose, his destination, thus pos
sibly balkirs the Judicial Error o.
another link, This was his cunning
aim, and now, with one foot on the
roadway and one still on the coach
step he made haste to put the thing
in practice, and plunged his hand into
his trousers pocket.
There was nothing there
Oh, yes; this time he was to blame
He should have remembered, an(
when he deserted his blood-stainet
serted them along with his purse
} Make the most of his orror, and ther
compare it with the punishment
Conceive his new position, TO
lack words to picture it
Conceive him condemned to re
turn to that house, from the very
, thought of which his soul revolted
and once more to expose himself t,
, capture on the very scene of his mis-
deed. Conceive him linked to tn
moldy cab and the familiar cab man
, John cursed the cabman silently, an,
: then it occurred TO him that he mus
, stop the incarceration of his port
manteau. That, at least, he mus
I keep close at hand, and he turned t
: recall the porter. But his reflections
: brief as they had appeared, mus
{ have occupied him longer than h
: supposed, for there was the man al
, ready returning with the receipt.
,, Well, that was settled. He had los
, his portmanteau. also, for the siS
) pence with which he had paid tn