Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/272

“No,no! That won't do! the constables chimed in. ‘To have the impudence to say such as that, when we caught him in the act almost! But, thank God, we've got the handcuffs on him at last.’

“' We have, thank God, said the tall young man. ‘Well, I must move on. Good-luck to ye with your prisoner!’ And off he went as fast as his poor jade would carry him,

‘The constables then, with Georgy handcuffed between ‘em, and leading the horse, marched off in the other direction, towards the village where they had been accosted by the escort of soldiers sent to bring the deserter back, Georgy groaning : ‘I shall be shot, I shall be shot!’ They had not gone more than a mile before they met them.

“' Hoi, there !? says the head constable.

“' Hoi, yerself !’ says the corporal in charge.

“' We've got your man,’ says the constable.

"'Where?’ says the corporal.

“'Here, between us,’ said the constable. ‘Only you don’t recognize him ont o’ uniform.’

“The corporal looked at Georgy hard enough; then shook his head and said he was not the absconder,

“'But the absconder changed clothes with Farmer Joilice, and took his horse; and this man has ’em, d’ye see ?

“’Tis not our man,’ said the soldiers, ‘He’s a tall young fellow with a mole on his right cheek, and a military bearing, which this man decidedly has not.’

“I told the servants of the Crown that ’twas the other !’ pleaded Georgy. ‘But they wouldn’t believe me.”

"And so it became clear that the missing dragoon was the tall young farmer, and not Georgy Crookhill —s fact which Farmer Jollice himself corroborated when he arrived on the scene, As Georgy had only