ening was falling as, having left fair Sevenoaks behind, I came to the brow of a ce

reen, and with a wide-brimmed beaver hat sloped down over his eyes, who stood with his feet well apart, sucking the knob of a stick he carried, while he

k from his mouth and touched the br

aid he, and nodded towards

id I, pausing, "and I th

rrup," the man went on, pointing upwards with his st

rrible sig

"it's a sight to turn a m

him perhap

ring at me over his shoulder, "kn

ghway

e assizes last year, and a very good end he made of it too; and here he be

t is a scandal that our highways should be rendered od

pping a cloud of dust from his coat

e though it is, could possibly deter a man from robbery or murder whose

old custom, as old

r men have been hanged and gibbeted all these years, yet robbe

s many a man might think twice afore running the chance of coming to that-look!" And he stopped to turn, and point back at the gibbet with his stick. "Nick

he gibbet, and the grisly horror that dangled beneath with its chains and iron bands; and from this, back again to my com

said I,

ouble you for the shiner I see a-winking at me from your cr

from his grinning mouth swiftly ove

it." It was with singularly clumsy fingers that I drew the watc

s," he suggested

ten guineas, which were as yet intact, and which he po

that knapsack now," he pursued, eyeing it thoughtfully, "it looks heavy and might hold valleybels, but then, on the other hand, it might not, and those there straps takes time to unbuckle and-" He broke off suddenly, for from somew