Every aggrieved individual feels for the public.

The coach was in the very act of getting into
motion, when—

"Hold, there! Stop!" was shouted, and the
steaming horse of the robber reappeared at the
coach door. The glass dropped, as if it knew
the touch of his finger.

"You—boy! Where did you steal this?" he
questioned, roughly, thrusting forward the
snuff-box.

"I steal not!" said Arthur, indignantly. "Zey
found it in——"

The robber seized the boy by the collar, and
dragged him forward, so that the light of the
coach-lamps fell full upon both their faces. The
upper part of the robber's face was covered with
a black silk mask.

"You are a thief, sir," he muttered. "I take
you into my custody. Descend. Do you hear?"

Arthur was powerless in the man's gripe, and
was obliged to obey.

"Drive on!" said the robber, levelling his
pistol.

The coachman lashed his horses, and young
Haggerdorn was left alone with his captor.

"Follow me, boy," said the latter, "and, if
you can trust a robber's word, be sure you shall
receive no injury. I must speak with you, and
this is ticklish ground. Follow close."

He touched his horse with the spur, and
sprang into the thicket, Arthur scrambling over
the barrier as best he might. Threading the
copse, they crossed a field or two, entered a
green lane, thence passed into an orchard, and
stopped before a decent cottage. Here the
robber dismounted, and allowing his horse,
which seemed perfectly at home, to seek his own
place of concealment, conducted Arthur into the
hut. A fire was smouldering on the hearth.
The robber flung upon it a bundle of dried furze,
producing a blaze which made the room as light
as day.

"Now, answer truly, boy. Where did you
get this box?"

Arthur replied that it had been found in
a house in Jermyn-street, left there by nobody
knew whom.

"You know. Speak, sir," said the robber,
seizing him by both arms with a force which,
though gently exerted, seemed to paralyse every
nerve.

Arthur hesitated.

"I can guess," he said.

"Who?"

"Lord Lob."

"Lord Beelzebub! These are the arms of
——Who was your father, boy?"

"I never knew him."

"Your mother?"

"Dead."

The robber started.

"Dead!" (He drew his hand slowly across his
brow.) "My boy, this was hers, your mother's
and mine!"

"Yours!"

"I am Lord Lob, your brother."

Arthur turned white as ashes.

"And—and—ze murder?" he gasped.

"The murder, lad?" said Lord Lob, showing
his white teeth. "Be more particular. Which
murder? What affair concerned you?"

"I mean—in Jermyn-street—the——"

"Old Humpage? Ha!"

A light flashed across the casement. Next
moment the door was dashed in, and the officer,
Armour, followed by half a dozen others, flung
himself boldly on the Black-Thumb.

Whether the latter was actually confounded
by the sudden onslaught, or, at once
comprehending the hopelessness of escape, purposely
forbore resistance—certain it is he was secured
without difficulty—after which, Armour, turning
to Arthur and congratulating him on the safety
of his person and property, requested him to
accompany them to the house of the magistrate,
a short distance off. The young man, feeling as
though walking in a dream, assented, and, the
little dwelling having undergone a rapid search,
without producing anything of a suspicious
nature, the party set forth.

CHAPTER X.

THE demeanour of Lord Lob was singular, and
contributed in no small degree to the confusion
of Arthur's brain. Since his capture, the robber
had neither turned his eyes towards his brother,
nor had he addressed a single syllable to him nor
to any one else. Still preserving the same strange
silence, he was placed before Mr. Thickles, the
magistrate of Ingatestone, who had apparently
sat up to that unwonted hour in the expectation
of such a visitor. Several of the coach-passengers,
and the guard, were already in attendance;
and, so eager were these good folks in furthering
the ends of justice, that Arthur's testimony was
not, for the present, required. The examination
ended with the committal of the prisoner on the
charge of highway robbery, the magistrate
intimating that, by express order from the government,
he would not be sent to the county prison,
but to London, there to answer charges of a
more serious nature.

So effectually, in fact, was Lord Lob compromised
in the eye of the law through many a
previous exploit, that it was scarcely deemed
necessary to take the usual measures for securing
his conviction on this charge, and it was finally
settled that all the outward-bound witnesses, with
the exception of Arthur Haggerdorn, who evinced
no kind of reluctance to remain, should be allowed
to proceed on their voyage.

A chaise was then ordered, to convey the
redoubted prisoner to town, and Arthur was
about to follow the others from the room, when
Armour touched his arm, and showed the snuff-
box.

"Where did you tell me you got this, young
gentleman?"

"I tell you not," replied Arthur, "but I do
now. Miss Humpage gave it."