304 A JACOBITE EXILE

all off and take a good walk together as we used to do in the
old days. We will go eight or ten miles out, stop at some
wayside inn for refreshments, and then come back here for
the night, and start back again for town to-morrow.”

Harry at once agreed, and taking their hats they started.

‘They did not hurry themselves, and carefully avoiding
all mention of the subject that had occupied their thoughts
for weeks, they chatted over their last campaign, their
friends in the Swedish camp, and the course that affairs
were likely to take. After four hours’ walking they came
to a small wayside inn standing back twenty or thirty yards
from the road.

“Tt is a quiet-looking little place,” Charlie said, “and
does but a small trade, I should say. However, no doubt
they can give us some bread and cheese, and a mug of ale,
which will last us well enough till we get back to Barnet.”

The landlord placed what they demanded before them
and then left the room again, replying by a short word or
two to their remarks on the weather.

“A surly ill-conditioned sort of fellow,” Harry said.

“Tt may be, Harry, that badness of trade has spoiled his
temper. However so long as his beer is good it matters
little about his mood.”

They had finished their bread and cheese, and were
sitting idly, being in no hurry to start on their way back,
when a man on horseback turned off from the road and
came up the narrow lane in which the house stood. As
Charlie, who was facing that way, looked at him he started,
and grasped Harry’s arm.

“Tt is our man,” he said; “itis Nicholson himself! To
think of our searching all London these weeks past and
stumbling upon him here.”

The man stopped at the door, which was at once opened
by the landlord.

‘All right, I suppose, landlord,” the man said as he
swung himself from his horse.