The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-17

squire as two peas, though consid- Prince, the landlord came to the door erably younger man; some said there were reasons for it, but then people vii say anything.
 'Cold?' he said, looking at the fig ure in the care. There was naturally no reply.
 Tired of waiting? I don't dot to sleep out O door. Can l get 'ee aught?"
 The stiffness of the figure excited Isaacs curiosity. He walked round the if it ain't the old squire!' Isaac lis- tened to the voices within. There was no sign of movement. The warmth he knew was seductive. In a few mo- rnents his strong arms had lifted the unexpectedly blundered into their across the road to the little del oppo- slite. There. Isaac reverently laid it down, divested it of the coat and hat, slipped them on, returned to the trap, mounted, took the reins, and adopted as nearly as he could the limp attitude of the corpse. The time seemed long, but Bil and Jim returned at last and unsuspectingly blundered into their places. Isaac gathered their destina tions as he lurched first into one and then the other; he waited till they came to a spot where high wall bor- dered the road on the one side and a bushy fence with a deep ditch bepond it on the other, then he dug his elbow sharply into Jim's ribs as being the more nervous of the two
 Bill Jim whispered huskily, The nudged me!'
 Not he; he's done with nudging. You be timid, you be. Set up, can't eel" Bill said, pushing the corpse, which lolled against him.
 Presently Isaac's elbow struck his ribs.
 "Durned if be didn't nudge me-" Bill exclaimed uneasily.
 Isaac waited again. and then made a savage dig on either side of him.
 Did you feel that?" both men eX- claimed together.
 ''Darned if his hands ain't hot!'' Bill exclaimed
 Its hotter than that where I came from, and where you're going Isaac said in a sepulchral voice.
 God in Heaven, it's the old 'un him self" Bill shouted, abandoning the reins and springing out of the trap. Jim was gone also and Isaac uttered a fiendish roar Bil sprang wildly at the fence and disappeared into the ditch beyond with Jim on top of him, the two clutching one another and fighting desperately in the darkness, each un- der the impression that he was held in satanic clutches. They fought till they were exhausted, and then lay still in the mud and water, neither daring to move.
 Isaac sat listening to the smothered curses and sounds of battle, then he edged the mare on to the grass by the roadside and made his way home by a hy-road, knowing well that neither man would dare to claim the mare and trap.
 Two hours later Isaac Prince con veyed the body of the old squire back to it's resting place. He went alone an dunaided: 1t was a work of restitu- tion, so he had no fears, but he made some strange remarks to theb ody with regard to the treatment of Miss Let tice that was.'
 However can you expect to lny quiet, turning her out of her natural house and home and putting that wastrel in her place? If I'd been Thomas Nneth I'd have lined this coffin with clout nails, durned if I wouldn't! Maybe he did.
 Isaac raised his lanetrn from the floor an dpassed his hand over the lin- ing of the coffin in search of nail points; presently there came the crackle of paper, and the landlord of the Dog and Gum withdrew a long blue paper. The lantern threw dim light on the surroundings, but it was sufficient to enable him to decipher the superscription.
 "The last vii land testament of Geof- frey Hawkhurst." He turned it over and over in silence and then put it carefully in an inner pocket of his coat.
 Maybe this will make a difference; if so, I asks your pardon for my re- marks he said. Laid right under the old gentleman too! wonder who done it!"
 Isaac Prince hoisted up the remains of Godfrey Hawkhurst and placed them in the coffin, screwed down the lid, made al tidy, and retired, carefully the left Mrs. Beauclerk followed slow the will to those concerned without ex- citing suspicion. If he took the docu- men to the lawyer he would have to give an explanations; if he took 1t up to the great house there would be the same difficulty No wonder his wife thought him unusually restless that night.
 Fortune is said to favor the brave whether she does or not, unforeseen undoubtedly arise at times which help to shape the ends of destiny
 With the ostenslble purpose of pur- chasing some meal for his pigs at the mill Isaac Prince made his way to- ward the village on the following day.
 The fotpath made its way through a coppice with the ground falling slight ly on either side; near the manor house another pathway crossed it at right anbles, a stile marking the en- trance to the park. To the right Isaac could see MT. Reginald Hawkhurst the stone above the flight of steps. He wbistled for company as he walked home, and then fell to meditat